Winboard Forum

I recently upgraded to Winboard 4.4.3. In one of my test games, an engine (namely SEE) played h8 without telling which piece should replace the pawn, which is indeed a violation of chess rules.

It seems to me (possibly I am wrong) that former versions of Winboard auto-promoted to Queen in that case. It would be more convenient for testers to have this option back.

Here is the game.

[Event "ChessWar XVI Promotion test 40m/20'"]
[Site "DELL-E6600"]
[Date "2010.09.19"]
[Round "1.2"]
[White "SEE 0.6.9"]
[Black "Butterfly 0.3.3"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "40/300"]
[Annotator "3. -0.11 1... +0.00"]
[Number "4"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 {+0.00/7 0.1} 2. c4 Nc6 {+0.00/7 5} 3. e3 {-0.11/9 5} e5
{+0.00/6 5} 4. Nc3 {-0.03/9 4} e4 {+0.01/5 5} 5. Ng5 {+0.46/9 4} Bb4
{+0.00/5 5} 6. Ngxe4 {+0.36/8 4} Nxe4 {+0.01/5 5} 7. Nxe4 {+0.36/8 4} d5
{+0.00/6 5} 8. Nc3 {+0.41/8 4} Bxc3 {+0.01/5 4} 9. bxc3 {+0.53/9 4} Qg5
{+0.01/5 4} 10. Qb3 {+0.96/8 3} dxc4 {+0.01/5 4} 11. Bxc4 {+0.94/8 4} O-O
{+0.00/5 4} 12. Ba3 {+1.35/8 4} Qxg2 {+0.01/5 4} 13. Bd5 {+2.69/9 4} Qg6
{+0.00/5 4} 14. Bxf8 {+2.59/8 4} Kxf8 {+0.00/6 4} 15. h4 {+2.43/7 4} Kg8
{+0.00/5 4} 16. Qb5 {+2.14/8 4} a6 {+0.00/5 4} 17. Qa4 {+2.00/8 3} Bd7
{+0.00/5 4} 18. Qf4 {+1.98/8 3} Qh5 {+0.00/5 4} 19. Qg5 {+2.00/8 3} Qg6
{+0.00/5 4} 20. Qxg6 {+2.00/9 3} hxg6 {+0.00/6 4} 21. Rg1 {+1.96/9 3} Ne5
{+0.00/6 4} 22. Bxb7 {+2.84/8 3} Ra7 {+0.00/6 4} 23. Bh1 {+3.00/8 3} Bc6
{-0.01/6 3} 24. Bxc6 {+3.14/11 3} Nxc6 {-0.01/7 3} 25. Rb1 {+3.14/10 3} f6
{-0.02/6 3} 26. Rxg6 {+4.01/10 4} Kf7 {-0.02/7 3} 27. Rg1 {+4.01/9 4} Ra8
{-0.02/6 3} 28. Rb7 {+4.01/9 4} Ra7 {-0.02/6 3} 29. Rxa7 {+4.84/11 2.8}
Nxa7 {-0.03/8 3} 30. Rg4 {+4.86/11 2.8} Nb5 {-0.04/7 3} 31. Rc4
{+4.88/11 2.9} Ke6 {-0.04/7 3} 32. a4 {+5.72/11 2.9} Kd5 {-0.05/7 3} 33.
axb5 {+8.76/13 3} axb5 {-0.09/7 3} 34. Rxc7 {+8.30/12 2.0} g6 {-0.10/7 2.9}
35. Rg7 {+9.01/12 2.1} Ke5 {-0.10/7 2.9} 36. Rxg6 {+9.19/13 2.1} Kf5
{-0.11/7 2.8} 37. h5 {+14.07/13 2.2} b4 {-0.11/7 2.8} 38. cxb4
{+19.19/14 4} Ke6 {-0.20/8 2.7} 39. h6 {+19.31/13 2.3} Kf7 {-0.21/8 2.3}
40. Rg7+ {+100.00/13 2.7} Ke6 {-0.24/7 0.1} 41. h7 {+100.00/5 4} Ke5
{-0.24/7 0.1} 42. h8 {+100.00/5 7} Ke6 {-0.11/7 0.1} 43. Qc8+ {+100.00/2 7}
Kd5 {-0.12/8 0.1} 44. Qf5+ {+100.00/2 7} Kd6 {-0.13/8 0.1} 45. Qxf6+
{+100.00/2}
{Xboard: Forfeit due to invalid move: d6e6 (d6e6) res=35} 1-0


Funnily the other engine assumed the promoted piece was still a pawn and played an illegal move.

Olivier

The issue just happened again... I guess I'll revert to an older version of Winboard.

Olivier

Hmm, it seems even the development version suffers from this. I will check it out.

Thanks hgm

There is another engine that is making trouble here with latest Winboard : Golem ! Most of the time, Winboard exits.

Code: Select all

Input line exceeded buffer size (source id=3752)
Fatal Error: Error reading from second chess program ("Golem_04.exe" ):

Olivier