Editing XBoard (section)

==Overview==
Originally developed by Tim Mann as a [[front and back end|front end]] for the [[GNU Chess]] [[chess engine|engine]], XBoard eventually came to be described as a [[graphical user interface]] for XBoard engines.<ref name="Hagen2010">{{cite book|last=Hagen|first=William von|title=Ubuntu Linux Bible: Featuring Ubuntu 10.04 LTS|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rsSlrQLB8-gC&pg=SA15-PA93|access-date=11 November 2011|date=13 May 2010|publisher=John Wiley and Sons|isbn=978-0-470-88180-4|pages=15–16}}</ref> It also acts as a client for [[Internet Chess Server]]s,<ref name="Negus2003">{{cite book|last=Negus|first=Chris|title=Red Hat Linux 9 bible|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NliYH-zrQXQC|year=2003|publisher=Wiley Pub.|isbn=978-0-7645-3938-1|page=242}}</ref> and [[Play-by-mail game|e-mail chess]],<ref name="MuiQuercia1994">{{cite book|last1=Mui|first1=Linda|last2=Quercia|first2=Valérie|title=X user tools|url=https://archive.org/details/xusertools00lind|url-access=registration|access-date=11 November 2011|year=1994|publisher=O'Reilly & Associates|isbn=978-1-56592-019-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/xusertools00lind/page/186 186]}}</ref> and can allow the user to play through saved games.<ref name="Johnson2005">{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Chris F. A.|title=Shell scripting recipes: a problem-solution approach|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PDqsRgXg1WIC&pg=PA294|year=2005|publisher=Apress|isbn=978-1-59059-471-1|page=294}}</ref>

XBoard/WinBoard remain updated, and the Chess Engine Communication Protocol has been extended to meet the needs of modern engines (which have features such as hash tables, multi-processing and end-game tables, which could not be controlled through the old protocol).

XBoard/WinBoard also fully support engines that play [[List of chess variants|chess variants]], such as [[Fairy-Max]]. This means the GUI is able to display a wide range of variants such as [[xiangqi]] (Chinese chess), [[shogi]] (Japanese chess), [[makruk]] (Thai chess), [[Crazyhouse]], [[Capablanca Chess]] and many other Western variants on boards of various sizes. It offers a Westernized representation for these games, but the almost limitless configurability of XBoard/WinBoard also allows a high-quality representation of non-Western style games.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/|publisher=gnu.org|title=XBoard|access-date=11 November 2011}}</ref>
[[File:Xboard shogi.png|thumb|left|upright=1.4|Screenshot of XBoard showing a game of [[shogi]]]]
Another computer chess protocol is the [[Universal Chess Interface]] (UCI). XBoard/WinBoard supports this protocol (and its dialects USI and UCCI, which are in common use for shogi and Chinese chess) through adapter programs such as Polyglot and UCI2WB.

Since 2014 there exists a special version of XBoard that better integrates with Apple's [[OS X]]. It is distributed from WinBoard forum as an OS X App, including several engines (for [[chess]] and many chess variants), and adapters for running engines in non-natively supported protocols. It also contains supporting software for connecting with the popular Internet Chess Servers FICS and ICC for on-line play. XBoard OS X Apps that specifically configure XBoard for oriental-style shogi or xiangqi are also available.

WinBoard is a version of XBoard adapted to MS Windows, and is available in a similar package.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/CVfairy.html|website=home.hccnet|title=Fairy-Max: an AI for playing user-defined Chess variants}}</ref>
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