How to Enter Games

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How to Enter Games

To start a new game:
1. Select File | New.
2. Enter moves as described below.
To add moves to an existing game:
1. Replay the game to the position where you wish to enter new moves.
2. Enter the moves as described below. (Note: When the existing game is part of a PGN library,
ChessCat will require you to save the changed game to an new file.)

Entering Moves
You can enter moves using the mouse or the keyboard. You may only enter moves for the side
whose turn it is to move.

Using the Mouse to Enter Moves

To enter moves using the mouse, position the cursor to the desired piece and press the left mouse
button. A black border will appear on the square indicating the piece is selected. In the example
below, the white king's bishop was selected. If the Legal Moves option is on, the squares to which
the piece may move will be distinctively colored as shown.

You may now move the piece by dragging it, or by selecting a destination square with the mouse.
To move the piece by dragging, continue to hold the left mouse button down after selecting the piece
to be moved. Drag the piece to the desired destination. During this operation, the mouse cursor will
change to a hand. Release the left-mouse button to complete the move. If the move is legal, the
selected piece will remain where placed. If not, the piece return to its original square.

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To move the piece by selecting the destination square, release the left-mouse button. The selected
peice will remain selected. Position the cursor to the destination square, and click the left mouse
button again. If the move is legal the selected piece will move to the destination square. If not, the
piece will be de-selected.
To deselect a piece, click any square that is not a legal move for the selected piece.

Using the Keyboard to Enter Moves

To move a piece using the keyboard, simply type your in move using Short Algebraic Notation. As
you type, your keystrokes will appear in the keyboard input echo on the Status Bar. Press the "Enter"
key to complete your move. If your move is legal, the selected piece will move to the destination
square. If not, ChessCat will display a message in the Status Bar and await input.

In the above example, the characters "Bb5" were typed at the keyboard, but the "Enter" key was not
pressed. You can see the characters that were typed in the keyboard input echo area. When the
"Enter" key is pressed, ChessCat will move the white bishop to square b5.

Castling and Pawn Promotion

To castle, move the King two squares in the direction desired for castling. ChessCat automatically
moves the corresponding Rook. To promote a pawn, move the pawn to the 8th rank. ChessCat
displays the Promote Pawn dialog . Use the Promote Pawn dialog to select the desired piece for
pawn promotion.

How to Enter Variations

To enter a variation, position the game score to the move before the move that is to be varied. Then,
enter a move different than the one currently in the game score. ChessCat will accept the new move
as a variation.
For example, suppose you want to enter a variation for Black's first move. Position the game score so

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that White's first move is the current move as shown below:

Then make a different move for Black, such as 1...c5. ChessCat responds with:

The variation 1...c5 is entered, and is made the current move.

How to Open Existing Games

To open an existing game,
1. Select File|Open.
2. Select the desired file.
You may only open files which contain games in recorded in PGN.
If there is more than one game in the file, ChessCat presents a selection list and allows you to choose
the desired game. Once a selection list is presented it remains active even though it is not displayed
until replaced by another selection list. You may select additional games from the active selection
list by selecting File|Open Selection List. ChessCat will redisplay the selection list.

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Use ChessCat's Find Games feature to find games on your computer when you do not remember the
name of the file.

PGN Libraries
A PGN Library is a PGN file with more than one game. ChessCat will not save changes to games
loaded from a PGN Library to the PGN Library. ChessCat requires you to save the changes to a new
file. ChessCat does this to prevent corruption of the PGN Library file.

Queries
A ChessCat Query is the saved result of a Find Games action. When you use ChessCat to find PGN
games on your computer, you may save the result of the search as a Query. You may later open the
query to access any games in the query. ChessCat stores the name of the file for a query entry with
the query. If you later move, rename or delete that file, the query entry will be unusable. ChessCat
stores the tags found in a PGN game with the query. If you later change a tag in the PGN game, the
value in the saved query will not be updated.

How to Replay a Game

To replay a game, you can use the VCR style buttons on the Replay Bar or the use the keyboard. In
order to replay a game, though, you must have a game open in the active game window.

Button Action
Repositions the current move to before the first move.
Keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Home.
Repositions the current move the first move in the variation. The main line is
considered a variation.
Keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Left Arrow.
Repositions the current move the previous move in the current variation. The main
line is considered a variation.
Keyboard shortcut is Left Arrow.
Repositions the current move the next move in the current variation. The main line is
considered a variation.
Keyboard shortcut is Right Arrow.
Repositions the current move the last move in the variation. The main line is
considered a variation.
Keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Right Arrow.
Repositions the current move to the last move of the main line.
Keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+End.

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Repositions the current move to the next variation. If the current move has variations,
this positions the current move to the first variation for the current move. Otherwise,
this positions the current move to the next variation as the same level as the current
variation. When the current variation is the last variation for a given level, though,
this repositions the current move to current variation's parent move.
Keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Down Arrow.
Repositions the current move to the previous variation. This positions the current
move to the previous variation as the same level as the current variation. When the
current variation is the first variation for a given level, though, this repositions the
current move to the current variation's parent move.
Keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Up Arrow.
This automatically replays the game from the current move to the end of the variation.
The main line is considered a variation.
Keyboard shortcut is Alt+Shift+A.
Note: ChessCat disables Replay Bar buttons whose actions are not available.
See also Solitaire.

How To Change Scoresheet Heading

1. Select Tools | Properties.
2. Select Heading.
3. Make changes as desired.
See Heading Properties.

How to Make Pieces Slide

To Make the Pieces Slide:

Open the Replay Menu.

If menu item Animation is checked, piece sliding is already turned on.
If menu item Animation is not checked, then select menu item Animation. This turns on piece
sliding.

To Make the Pieces Stop Sliding:

Open the Replay Menu.

If menu item Animation is not checked, piece sliding is already disabled.
If menu item Animation is checked, then select menu item Animation. This turns off piece
sliding.

To adjust the speed of the sliding, see Adjust Animation Dialog.

How to Add Custom Tags

1. Select Tools | Custom Tags.
2. Type in new tag name in the text box.
3. Press the Add button to set the new tag.

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4. Press the Ok button to close the dialog and accept the new tag.
See Custom Tags Dialog.

How to Enter Annotations

Method 1
1. Select Edit|Move Annotation
ChessCat displays the Move Annotation dialog for the current move.

Method 2
1. Right-click with the mouse in the Game Score window on the move to be annotated.
ChessCat displays the Move Annotation dialog for the selected move.
Note: The focus when the Move Annotation dialog displays is set according to the element which is
right-clicked.
Element

Focus

Move Text

Quick Pick Radio Buttons

Move Commentary

Commentary Text Box

Move Stamp

Stamp Text Box

Diagram Indicator

Diagram Check Box

Method 3
1. Right-click with the mouse in the Board window.
2. Select menu item Annotate.
ChessCat displays the Move Annotation dialog for the current move.

How to Enter Commentary Before the First

Move
Right-click using the mouse on the blank line immediately preceeding the first move line. ChessCat
displays the Commentary Game Start dialog.

How to Print a Diagram

To print a diagram on a game score, simply toggle the Digram check-box using the Move
Annotation Dialog. The diagram will print after the associated move text.
To toggle the Diagram check-box:

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1. Select Edit | Move Annotation.

2. Check the Diagram Check Box.
3. Click Ok to save changes.
There is no direct way in ChessCat to print just a diagram. A single diagram can be printed, though,
using the following steps.
1.
2.
3.
4.

Copy the current position to the clipboard as a diagram using Edit | Copy Position as Diagram
Open Wordpad.
Paste the diagram into Wordpad.
Select the diagram and change the font to the chess font specified in the Notation and Diagram
Properties Dialog.
5. Print the diagram from Wordpad.
Using this technique, you may also select the font size you desire prior to printing.
Note: Wordpad is a simple word-processing program that comes with all versions of Microsoft
Windows starting with Win95. Use Start | Find from the Windows Task Bar to find Wordpad on
your computer.

How to Use a Chess Engine to Analyze

To use a chess engine to analyze a position, you must first install a WinBoard compatible chess
engine. See WinBoard Engines for more information about WinBoard engines.
The chess program Crafty (copyright by Dr. Robert M. Hyatt) is a popular WinBoard compatible
chess engine that works with ChessCat. Crafty is available on the Internet. To get Crafty, visit
http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html.
To install a WinBoard chess engine into ChessCat:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Select Tools | Engines (ChessCat displays the Engines Dialog).

Click the Add button to add a new engine.
Type in the name to be displayed for the engine when it is running.
Click Ok to save the name.
In the File Name text box, enter the full path for the engine executable (i.e. where you installed
the engine), or use the Browse button to look it up.
6. In the Engine Parameters text box, enter any initialization parameters required for the selected
engine.
7. In the Commands after xboard and post text box, enter any commands required for the
selected engine after ChessCat sends the engine the xboard and post commands (the Engines
Dialog shows sample parameters for Crafty).
8. Chick Ok to save engine settings
After an engine is installed, you can analyze the current position by selecting Tools | Analyze
Position. This activates the chess engine. While the chess engine is active, ChessCat automatically
sends the current position to the engine for analysis when a move is played.

How to Change File Extensions

You may change the file extensions ChessCat uses to create indexes and queries. This may be useful
if you have another application which also uses the same file extension. Otherwise, this action is not

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recommended.
Upon reading a PGN library file, ChessCat will create an index for the game file if no index file
exists, or if the index file is older than the associated game file. However, ChessCat will not
overwrite an existing index file unless the file was created by ChessCat. ChessCat determines
whether or not it created the file by looking for the character string "CHESSCAT" in a control block
at the end of the file. In that case, ChessCat will not make an index of the associated PGN file.
Without an index, accessing the games in the PGN file will be much slower.
ChessCat does not verify it created a query file before overwritting as it does with index files
because ChessCat does not overwrite an existing query file unless specifically authorized to do so
when saving a query.
To change a file extension, add the appropriate entry to the chesscat.ini file:
File Type

Default

Section Key

Variable Name

Index File

".pxh"

FileExtensions

Header

Query File

".pxq"

FileExtensions

Query

Example:
[FileExtensions]
Header=.xxx
Query=.yyy
where xxx and yyy are the desired file extensions. You need only enter the extensions you desire to
change.

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