Chess − GNU Chess
gnuchess [OPTION]...
GNU Chess
Play the game of chess.
−h, −−help
display this help and exit
−v, −−version
display version information and exit
−q, −−quiet
make the program silent on startup
−−silent
same as −q
−x, −−xboard
start in engine mode
−p, −−post
start up showing thinking
−e, −−easy
disable thinking in opponents time
−m, −−manual
enable manual mode
−u, −−uci
enable UCI protocol (that is: behave like an UCI engine); incompatible with other options
−M SIZE, −−memory=SIZE
specify memory usage in MB for hashtable
−a FILENAME, −−addbook=FILENAME
compile book.bin from pgn book FILENAME
−g, −−graphic
enable graphic mode
Options xboard and post are accepted without leading dashes for backward compatibility.
Moves are accepted either in standard algebraic notation (SAN) or in coordinate algebraic notation.
The file ’gnuchess.ini’ allows setting configuration options, but it is ignored if the −−uci option is used. See ’info gnuchess’ for details about the options. The program will look for ’gnuchess.ini’ in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnuchess/ and $HOME/.config/gnuchess/ in that order, and it will use the first one it finds, if any.
Report bugs to:
<bug−gnu−[email protected]>.
GNU Chess home page:
<https://www.gnu.org/software/chess/>
General help using GNU software:
<https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Copyright ©
2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL
version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and
redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by law.
The full documentation for Chess is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and Chess programs are properly installed at your site, the command
info gnuchess
should give you access to the complete manual.