Winboard Forum

Hello. I would like to play against an engine with a time handicap, from a saved position. It's not possible to alter time control once the position is loaded, so I do it before, which is fine if a little cumbersome. The thing is that upon loading the FEN, the time control is reversed, and I have less time than the engine. The workaround I found was to set the time control in reverse, but that too is a little cumbersome.

Occasionally my moves are rejected on the basis of illegality despite the rules of the game. I don't know whether it's Winboard or the engine I'm using (Fairy-SF) that is to blame.

Edit: It's come to my attention the handicap changes colors upon editing the position, not necessarily loading one.

Am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

bump

Altering TC during the game is not a well-defined operation (e.g. should the counting of moves in classical TC start from the moment you change or from the start), and not all engines would react to it in the same way (if at all). This is why WinBoard doesn't allow it.

I am not sure what you mean by 'reversed'. The time odds is specified per engine, not per color. When you play against an engine, this is always engine #1. No matter what color it plays for. Engine #2 is only used in engine-engine games. After setting up / loading a position it is not known which side the engine is going to play for, so you should not attach any meaning to the clocks; only when you set the engine playing WinBoard can apply the time odds to the correct clock.

For the legality issue you have to be more specific (i.e. what variant, which position, which move, what message is printed). Both WinBoard and the engine can refuse moves; when legality testing is on, WinBoard would just state 'Illegal move' when it rejects the user move, otherwise it would also print the move, and add 'rejected by first engine' in parentheses. Normally the latter can only occur with legality testing off, but if WinBoard and the engine disagree about the rules it can also occur with legality testing on.