H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, Sep 21, 2009 10:00 AM UTC:
> My plan ('plan' being the operative word) is to modify Winboard to
> implement free castling, having it so, if playing Schoolbook, one of
> the engines doesn't recognize the free castling move, Winboard will
> simply rearrange the pieces for that engine and continue the game.
> This will give engines that know how to do free castling an edge.
There might be more problems with that then you think. Some engines might consider loading a new position the start of a new game, and would get out of sync with WinBoard for counting moves to the next time control. If you play an incremental TC that should not matter, though.
Perhaps what you propose could be added as a general option to WinBoard: when an engine refuses a move through the prescribed illegal-move error message, WinBoard could reset the engine and force the position after the move into it, and restart it.
I think that the current WinBoard actualy does understand all King moves that step more than one file as castlings, putting the Rook located in that direction to the other side of it. (Except when you do a wrap-around move for Cylinder Chess.) So the engine could send f1d1, f1c1 or f1b1, and they would all be performed as queen-side castlings in -variant capablanca, provided you switch Test Legality off.
> My plan ('plan' being the operative word) is to modify Winboard to > implement free castling, having it so, if playing Schoolbook, one of > the engines doesn't recognize the free castling move, Winboard will > simply rearrange the pieces for that engine and continue the game. > This will give engines that know how to do free castling an edge. There might be more problems with that then you think. Some engines might consider loading a new position the start of a new game, and would get out of sync with WinBoard for counting moves to the next time control. If you play an incremental TC that should not matter, though. Perhaps what you propose could be added as a general option to WinBoard: when an engine refuses a move through the prescribed illegal-move error message, WinBoard could reset the engine and force the position after the move into it, and restart it. I think that the current WinBoard actualy does understand all King moves that step more than one file as castlings, putting the Rook located in that direction to the other side of it. (Except when you do a wrap-around move for Cylinder Chess.) So the engine could send f1d1, f1c1 or f1b1, and they would all be performed as queen-side castlings in -variant capablanca, provided you switch Test Legality off.