Banksia GUI released

[phhnguyen]

Thanks!! I had things configured differently and could not find it until your last graphic.

Thanks for the feedback. I took your idea about how difficult to find some functions. I will add some more functions to the main menu thus users can find them easier. I have tried to keep BSG looks simple but that is not always good.

[phhnguyen]

Bug Report:

On The Fly Analysis will not let you select new engine if you start On The Fly Analysis select say 'Stockfish' then stop the analysis and do a On The Fly Analysis again, it you just use the last engine you selected previously and not give you the option to select new engines.

Thanks for the report!

The function Analysis on the fly is redesigned/changed a bit thus users need only one-click to run it anywhere they want. Thus, it pops up the dialogbox to select engines only for the first time, then remember them for other times. The button Analysis on the toolbar now is changed to Analysis-on-the-fly for that one-click too.

If you want to change engines, just use the function Analysis (on the menu) to pop up that dialogbox again.

I have changed the menu item “Analysis” into “Analysis/Analysis on the fly” to help users a bit to vs confusing.

[AlexChess]

Dear Pham,
remember to fix also "add new engine" (maybe a specific button would be better than selecting it and then pressing "add new games") Actually it adds 1 game of each random-already-replaced unwanted engine. Removing them one be one, the number of games of the wanted new engine matches)

With this workaround I managed to play a roundrobin of 61 engines and there is still room for others
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-a ... e-fritz-17

The button to take a snapshot of the crosstable doesn't include all (there are borders on the sides) maybe you could make a "virtual snapshot" in some way, including all rows and columns for very big tournaments like mine.

Best regards, Alex

[Chessqueen]

Hi all,

I am glad to release my new program: Banksia GUI - a chess GUI. It is totally freeware and can run in almost all major operating systems, can do almost all typical tasks of a chess GUI.

Just list a few features:

• Support both UCI and WinBoard protocols

• Can play all types of games (human-human, human-computer, computer-computer, engine tournaments), support all popular tournament types

• Good and high customizable graphics

• Support databases, popular book formats (PGN, EDP, Polyglot)

• Supports some new chess techniques/trends. For examples, it supports:

• [+] Lc0: understand and show its stats in multi visual ways: tables (all columns are sortable), bubbles (customizable for sizes, colors and contents/which stats to show)

• [+] chessdb.com: query for both opening and endgame positions

• [+] syzygy: users can exam endgame positions

• Engines, databases, books could be auto-downloaded and configurated

• Easy to use. Many tasks could be done much easy and fast, such as auto-detecting engines, making/reusing tournaments

Home page: https://banksiagui.com

Download (temporary for alpha versions) pages: https://banksiagui.com/preview-versions

Current releases are alpha versions and just for computer chess enthusiasts. At the moment there are binaries for Windows 10-64 bit and macOS only. Other binaries (for Win 7, Linux) will be released later.

Banksia GUI is built based on our open-source Banksia - a chess tournament

Thank you a lot for downloading and using. Feedbacks, bug reports and ideas are warm welcomes



Some screenshots:

Easy for playing and for running tournaments:


Support deeply Lc0:


Simple:


Query chessdb.cn:


A friend sent me a screenshot when he was testing with 18 concurrent games:

Does Banksia support No castling chess, and how can I set it to show the last move made ?

[phhnguyen]

Dear Pham,
remember to fix also "add new engine" (maybe a specific button would be better than selecting it and then pressing "add new games") Actually it adds 1 game of each random-already-replaced unwanted engine. Removing them one be one, the number of games of the wanted new engine matches)

With this workaround I managed to play a roundrobin of 61 engines and there is still room for others
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-a ... e-fritz-17

The button to take a snapshot of the crosstable doesn't include all (there are borders on the sides) maybe you could make a "virtual snapshot" in some way, including all rows and columns for very big tournaments like mine.

Best regards, Alex

Thanks for suggestions, I added them to my todo list!

At the moment my tool (Qt) supports to take images of what is displayed only, thus it can’t take images of hidden columns/rows. For larger tables, I guess you need to buy a larger screen. Hope the screen with that size maybe available for the next few years

[phhnguyen]

Does Banksia support No castling chess, and how can I set it to show the last move made ?

No, not at that moment, sorry. I planned BSG won’t support any variants except standard chess and chess960 until I satisfy with its status and run out of complicated functions/features in my todo list (the list is still so long ).

BTW, you can easily run games/tournaments of No-castling chess with BSG. Just use a simple PGN or EPD opening books with all no-castling positions thus all games will be in that variant.

The last moves are auto displayed. If you want to change colors/styles, go menu -> Settings -> Move/Stats, tick or untick "Move highlight", "gradient" and click on two boxes next to the gradient to change colors.

[AdminX]

Bug Report:

On The Fly Analysis will not let you select new engine if you start On The Fly Analysis select say 'Stockfish' then stop the analysis and do a On The Fly Analysis again, it you just use the last engine you selected previously and not give you the option to select new engines.

Thanks for the report!

The function Analysis on the fly is redesigned/changed a bit thus users need only one-click to run it anywhere they want. Thus, it pops up the dialogbox to select engines only for the first time, then remember them for other times. The button Analysis on the toolbar now is changed to Analysis-on-the-fly for that one-click too.

If you want to change engines, just use the function Analysis (on the menu) to pop up that dialogbox again.

I have changed the menu item “Analysis” into “Analysis/Analysis on the fly” to help users a bit to vs confusing.

Thank you for the response, It worked!

[AlexChess]

Bug Report:

On The Fly Analysis will not let you select new engine if you start On The Fly Analysis select say 'Stockfish' then stop the analysis and do a On The Fly Analysis again, it you just use the last engine you selected previously and not give you the option to select new engines.

Thanks for the report!

The function Analysis on the fly is redesigned/changed a bit thus users need only one-click to run it anywhere they want. Thus, it pops up the dialogbox to select engines only for the first time, then remember them for other times. The button Analysis on the toolbar now is changed to Analysis-on-the-fly for that one-click too.

If you want to change engines, just use the function Analysis (on the menu) to pop up that dialogbox again.

I have changed the menu item “Analysis” into “Analysis/Analysis on the fly” to help users a bit to vs confusing.

Thank you for the response, It worked!

Nice that each of us BSG fans covers a different feature, helping Pham to fix issues. It will became a masterpiece

Kind regards, Alex

[AlexChess]

Hi Pham!

Could you please double the default sizes of the "Name" and "Command" columns?
Engines names are becoming every day more complex and we must every time enlarge them to read their full name



Best regards, Alex

[CMCanavessi]

You can resize them however you want...