Documentation On Winboard Working With JFW
By: Ed Rodriguez
Here is what you need to know to take advantage of the features that make Winboard more effective for auditory users.
Winboard is now keyboard driven instead of mouse driven. You can use the arrow keys to move around the board and find out where pieces are.
Winboard uses standard algebraic notation. That is a through h on the horizontal axis and 1 throug 838k1022i h 8 on the vertical axis.
You have the option of playing white pieces or black pieces, which can be chosen in the Mode menu. The default is machine playing black and user playing white.
To make a move, one must either type the move in (which appears in a type in move dialog the moment you begin typing) or use a select and move feature.
The type in move dialog allows you to specify what piece (e.g. N for knight, k for king) and the location you want it to go (e.g. 'Nc4' would take your knight to square c 4).
Some notes about this dialog: For all pieces except a bishop, you can use either capital or non-capital letters. For the bishop you must use a capital B. A listing of letters, which correspond to pieces, is at the end of this document. Also to move pawns, only the square letter and number is used. (E.g. to move a white pawn from square a2 to a3 just type in a3). However, when making a kill with a pawn you must specify the letter of the square it is coming from and the letter and number of the square it will attack. (E.g. for a pawn on a2 to capture something in b3 you must type in 'ab3')
For the select and move feature, spacebar selects and deselects pieces. If you hit spacebar on a piece it will say the piece and selected. If you hit spacebar on the square you want it to go to, it will make the move if possible or tell you the error if there is one. If you hit spacebar on the same piece you've already selected, it will deselect that piece and inform you accordingly.
Error's in the game including: invalid move, not your turn, unable to parse move, etc. are displayed in a dialog box that pops up when an error occurs. It will read the error, and wait for you to hit the ok button. This feature was included in Winboard and is toggled in the options, general menu. If you turn this off, the errors are spoken as they happen and the game waits for the next command.
Screen Review Options:
Read row, which reads the current row the cursor is on.
Keyboard accelerator: Alt + R.
Read column, which reads the current column the cursor is on.
Keyboard accelerator: Alt + C.
Say upper diagonals, which reads the upper diagonal squares to your right followed by the ones to the left of your current position.
Keyboard accelerator: Alt + U.
Say lower diagonals, which reads the lower diagonal squares to your right followed by the ones to the left of your current position.
Keyboard accelerator: Alt + L.
Say knight moves, which reads the possible positions to which a knight can move if the cursor is on a knight. Otherwise it reads the positions of your opponents knights if they can attack the square the cursor is on.
Keyboard accelerator: Alt + N.
Say all board, which reads the entire board row by row from the bottom (row 1) to the top (row 8).
Keyboard accelerator: Alt + B.
Say opponents pieces, which reads your opponents pieces and their locations
Keyboard accelerator: Alt + E.
Say current position, which reads the current coordinates of the square the cursor is on including the piece if there is one and whether you are on a light or dark square.
Keyboard accelerator: Alt + P.
Say who's turn, which says who's turn it currently is.
Keyboard accelerator: Alt + W.
Say last move feature, which reads the last move made either by the computer if it is your turn or by yourself if it is the computers turn. It will tell you the row and column of the square to which the piece moved, the piece itself, and will tell you if the move captured a piece, placed the king in check, or check mate (the game is over).
Keyboard accelerator: Alt + M.
Some extra notes:
Computer's moves are said as they are done.
If you hit alt + left arrow, it will take you back a move to see what happened previously. It will also speak that previous move.
Note: to make your next move, you must hit alt + right arrow the same number of times you hit alt + left arrow to go back to the current screen, where the game currently is active.
Listing of letters which correspond to the chess pieces:
Rook: r or R
Knight: n or N
Bishop: B
Queen: q or Q
King: k or K
These are the same whether you are playing white or black pieces. As mentioned above Pawns do not have a letter associated with them.
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