gshogi 0.5.0

Description

gshogi is a program to play Shogi (Japanese Chess). It has a builtin engine and can also use USI engines. It is written in python3/C and runs on GTK3 (PyGI) desktops.

It’s licensed under the GPL v3+ (see the file named LICENSE) and aimed mainly at Linux users.

It uses GTK3 for the gui and C for the engine code.

See the project homepage for more information on gshogi and USI engines.

Installation

Python 3 is required. If you are using a system that uses python 2 as default (do python -V to check) then you need to use python3 for commands and package names. For example the package name will be python3-cairo instead of python-cairo and the build command will be python3 setup.py build.

You need to install these packages first:

gcc python python-devel python-cairo python-gobject gtk3

Running gshogi from the Source Directory

You can run gshogi from the source directory without doing the full install.

To do this:

Enter ‘python setup.py build’ to build it.

Then ‘python run.py’ to run it.

Installing on the system

Enter ‘python setup.py build’ to build it (as normal user). Then ‘python setup.py install’ to install it (as root user).

Note:

You must run ‘python setup.py build’ first since this creates the opening book (don’t just run ‘python setup.py install’ on it’s own)

You can check the build step worked by looking for a file called engine.so under the build directory.

gshogi should now be installed on your system. You can launch it from the gnome menu (under games) or type ‘gshogi’ in any terminal window.

There is no uninstall (setuptools doesn’t have one). If you need to uninstall you have to make a note of the file names and then delete them manually.

If running the build/install multiple times it’s best to delete the build folder each time.

Note that the binary opening book (data/opening.bbk) has a different format on 32 bit and 64 bit systems. You cannot use the 32 bit book on a 64 bit system and vice versa. For this reason the opening book is created during the install when you do ‘python setup.py build’.

Here is some help for installing on specific distros.

For Fedora 23:

Install packages (as root user)

dnf install gcc redhat-rpm-config python3 python3-devel python3-cairo python3-gobject

build (as normal user)

python3 setup.py build

run from the source directory

python3 run.py

Install on the system (as root user)

python3 setup.py install

run the installed version

gshogi

For Debian 8 Jessie:

Install packages (as root user)

apt-get install gcc python3-dev python3-gi-cairo

build (as normal user)

python3 setup.py build

run from the source directory

python3 run.py

Install on the system (as root user)

python3 setup.py install

run the installed version

gshogi

For Arch:

Install packages (as root user)

pacman -S python python-gobject python-cairo gcc

build (as normal user)

python setup.py build

run from the source directory

python run.py

Install on the system (as root user)

python setup.py install

run the installed version

gshogi

Usage

You play black (the pieces at the bottom of the board). The computer plays white (the pieces at the top of the board). Press the green go button to start the clock. To move a piece click on it and then click on the square you want to move it to (or drag it and drop it).

Also you can play one engine against another which is good for comparing USI engines.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogi for the rules of Shogi.

If you want to see the USI commands then start it from a terminal with:

gshogi -vusi (or ./run.py -vusi if not installed)

For full debugging output use the command:

gshogi -v (or ./run.py -v if not installed)

File Support

You can load/save games in PSN format or in gshog format. It is recommended to use PSN format.

gshogi can also read multi-game PSN files.

Use gshog format for exchanging games with GNU Shogi.

Edit Board Function

When edting the board position you can increase the count of a piece in the komadai by right-clicking on it. Left-click on it to decrease the count.

To add a white piece to the main board right-click on the square you want to add the piece to then select the piece from the pop-up menu. To add a black piece left-click on the square.

Time control/Level support

Examples of time controls that can be used with gshogi.

These were tested with the gse 0.1.4 engine. Note that not all USI engines will work with all time controls. Most engines work OK with byoyomi so use that if you have problems.

Note that times on the go command are in milliseconds.

byoyomi

e.g. 60 minutes game time plus 30 seconds byoyomi This means the player can make as many or as few moves as they like in the 30 minutes and after that they will have 30 seconds per move.

go btime 3600000 wtime 3600000 byoyomi 30000

If you want a fixed time of 10 seconds per move: go btime 0 wtime 0 byoyomi 10000

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byoyomi

classical

e.g. 5 moves in 10 minutes

go btime 300000 wtime 300000 movestogo 40

Incremental

e.g. 30 minutes game time and 10 seconds bonus time per move This means the basic time for the game is 30 minutes and after each move a bonus of 10 seconds is added to the clock.

go btime 1800000 wtime 1800000 binc 10000 winc 10000

Fixed Time Per Move

e.g. 20 seconds per move go movetime 20000

Fixed Search Depth

e.g. Terminate the search when a depth of 8 is reached.

go depth 8

Infinite search

The search will go on indefinitely and will only terminate if a stop command (move now) is sent from the gui.

go infinite

Fixed No. of Nodes

The search will terminate after a fixed no. of nodes has been searched.

go nodes 10000000

Note that byoyomi is not part of the original USI specification (See http://www.glaurungchess.com/shogi/usi.html) but it is supported in most USI engines.

Custom Pieces

You can load custom pieces using the ‘Load Custom Pieces’ button on the ‘set pieces’ menu.

To set up your own custom pieces you must provide images with these filenames. You can use either png or svg files. If you use png change the file extension from svg to png.

Black Pieces:

Piece	Filename
King	kingB.svg
Rook	rookB.svg
Bishop	bishopB.svg
Gold General	goldB.svg
Silver General	silverB.svg
Knight	knightB.svg
Lance	lanceB.svg
Pawn	pawnB.svg
Promoted Rook	rookPB.svg
Promoted Bishop	bishopPB.svg
Promoted Silver General	silverPB.svg
Promoted Knight	knightPB.svg
Promoted Lance	lancePB.svg
Promoted Pawn	pawnPB.svg

The black piece images are mandatory. You can optionally provide images for the white pieces as well. If you provide white piece images gshogi will use them. If you don’t it will use the black piece images and rotate them through 180 degress.

White Pieces:

Piece	Filename
King	kingW.svg
Rook	rookW.svg
Bishop	bishopW.svg
Gold General	goldW.svg
Silver General	silverW.svg
Knight	knightW.svg
Lance	lanceW.svg
Pawn	pawnW.svg
Promoted Rook	rookPW.svg
Promoted Bishop	bishopPW.svg
Promoted Silver General	silverPW.svg
Promoted Knight	knightPW.svg
Promoted Lance	lancePW.svg
Promoted Pawn	pawnPW.svg

See the project homepage to download an example.

Acknowledgements

gshogi uses C engine code and includes some board pieces from GNU Shogi (version 1.3.2).