This is just one of the bugfix releases we regularly do of the stable branch, so don't expect any new features. There wasn't actually much to fix; the complete list of patches compared to 4.7.2 is this:
Code: Select all
Fix buffer overflow in parser on long PGN with scores
Allow castling and e.p. capture moves to survive when editing opening book
Fix node-count overflow in engine output
Better sorting of fail-low lines in engine output
Fix Chess960 a-side castling legality check
Fix position search in Chess960
Fix adjudication of Giveaway stalemates
Adapt WinBoard window positioning to work with multiple screens
Cure some weirdness in XBoard when dragging pieces outside the board
Some dialog layout improvements to facilitate internationalization
Fix crash on using some dialog Browse buttons in GTK version
Connect manual menu item work in GTK version
Put code for OS X integration in the GTK version
For the adventurous, there also is a new release of the development version available; the WinBoard binary for this can be downloaded from http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard.4.8.beta.zip , and could be used to replace the winboard.exe in the 4.7.3 install. This version does contain several new features. What would be of interest for orthodox Chess is
* New options -first/secondDrawDepth N
for speeding up play of tablebase-using engines (by limiting their search depth to N) in positions that according to a bitbase probe are a draw. This would prevent CPU wastage by engines trying to swindle each other in a drawn situation, by forcing them to instantly play the drawing move which according to their evaluation and a very shallow search is best. (In won and lost positions tablebase-using engines should already move instantly by themselves, without the help of any options.)
For these options to work, bitbases should be installed, and the -egtFormats string should contain the element scorpio:BITBASEPATH (can be typed in the Nalimov Path textedit of the Common Engine dialog)
* Edit Position mode was improved
Repeatedly exercising 'clear' will now cycle the board state through empty - pallette - initial position - original position - empty ... Where 'original position' is the position that you last completely erased, so that it is possible to recover if you cleared the board by mistake. The 'pallette' position contains all non-Pawns exactly once, and is a very convenient way to set up positions with just a few pieces, where you can move the required once to the desired squares, possibly duplicating one by moving with Ctrl pressed, or throwing it off board (or capturing it) when not needed. (Pawns can be added with a static mouse (right-)click, which is even easier than moving them, white for a plain click, black when Shift pressed.)
The variants ASEAN (a new form of Makruk) and Mighty-Lion Chess were added (the latter as a spin-off of Chu Shogi, which was added on XBoard). It also allows engines to define variants with non-standard names, which will appear in the New Variant dialog as choices. When the user selects such an engine-defined variant, the engine must tell WinBoard the specifics (board size, initial position, parent variant, participating pieces) through a 'setup' command, now officially part of WB protocol. (It existed before as undocumented feature.) This makes it, for instance, possible to make engines for all the ICS 'wild' boards, without the need for the user to configure WinBoard for them by providing initial positions from a file, etc.
Have fun, have WinBoard!
