SA Chess online help,support and FAQ

Posted by SA Chess  at March 1st, 2013

Other questions, please feel free to contact us. 

How to play xiangqi(chinese chess) against SA Chess

button 1: SA Chess play red

button 2 : SA Chess play black

button 3 : ponder, still thinking when the opponent is thinking,recommend on

button 4 : Move now,make a move immediately,used when limited time left

button 5 : Undo, cancel the last move made by you

button 6 : analyze mode, thinking infinite, used for research a complex position

Use openbook

First make sure ”Use openbook“ button is on

SA Chess will seek best move in openbook, if find nothing, the engine continue to work out.

You can see every move's rank and rate in openbook from move list window

Update openbook

set move valid or invalid

click on the "valid" column of the move you wish to change in the "Move list" window, after it change to valid , it's score will be changed to 999999.

update score of move

click on the score column of the move you wish to change in the "Move list" window, then update it in the pop window then press "OK" 

SA Chess options

Call out "Setup" dialog from main menu-Advance-setup

1 UI setup

Setup options: UI style , window size, board size, piece images,view images, and time window display,move list display, main window always top.

2  Engine setup

Setup options: switch UCCI engine, engine threads, hashtable size(default value is 256M, to 32bit engine, max value is 2G,  to 64bit engine, max vlaue is windows system limit ,  depends on different edition, such as 192G on win7 ultimate. suggestion size is half of available memory. so we strongly recommend to use 64bit windows system and engine. )

(To gain stronger strength, please close any unrelated program to save CPU and memory before you start SA Chess)

3 Time limit setup

Setup engine time limit here, now you can choose depth-sec or plus-sec

depth-sec: engine will move when defined depth or defined seconds reached, whichever occur first.

plus-sec: setup a whole game minutes , if the plus sec value more than zero, the whole time will add the defined seconds value after each move.

4 Openbook setup

You can choose use openbook and the openbook file path.

5 Others

Some other options here, such as auto draw after no-capture within 60 rounds, save communicate log between UI and AI, and kinds of sounds.

under default setup, the sounds is off, so you need to turn them on if you want.

SA Chess shortcut key

Ctrl + N    New game

Ctrl + O   Open game

Ctrl + S   Quick save(auto-name game file in SA Chess setup directory)

F2           Play as red side

F3           Play as black side

F4         Toggle ponder

F5 or Return   Move now

F6           Undo

F7           Analyze mode

F1          Online help

Ctrl + C   Copy position fen

Ctrl + V   Paste fen to position

SA Chess FAQ

Minimum hardware and software requirement

Intel P4 or above CPU

512M RAM

40G free hd disk

  Compatible with Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista, XP, Server 2003,Server 2008,Server 2012. (please note: not support win2000, win98, winme)

How to make SA Chess stronger?

Firstly, please turn on engine ponder option, then, basically, SA Chess strength become stronger if thinking time longer or the based hardware faster or both, so we can find some ways to improve SA Chess strength.

• Upgrade your computer, for example, buy latest cpu, cpu overclock etc.
• Shut any unrelated program such as anti-virus, web browser when play xiangqi (chinese chess)
• Setup hashtable to half of your computer's RAM (please note: before that , make sure other unrelated softwares have been closed and enough physical RAM available, otherwise SA Chess running speed will drop down radically)
• Use good openbook
• Let SA Chess thinking as long as you can
• Switch on ponder, if possible, press move now manually under neccessary situation to save time for complex postion
• Keep eyes on www.sachess.com to get latest upgrade as soon as you can.

Can I use SA Chess with slow computer?

Yes, SA Chess can run a low configuration computer very well, you need to spend more time to gain same strength to faster computer.

How to customize my favor board , pieces, background style and image?

All of SA Chess UI elements could be changed and customized, such as board image, pieces , background image.  

The two steps you need to do:

first, you need to find a bmp file you like,

two, please put the bmp file into /img/board directory  if you 'd change board, or /img/piece   if you 'd change piece, or /img/view if you 'd change background image. 

(/ is the installation directory). 

finally, please go to the main menu "advance” – “setup” – “UI setup” , to choose your bmp file name on proper image or background option.  see below image:

If buying Dual-Core Advanced sa chess software now, can it be upgraded later to 4 ? 8? … cpu ? And if so, is there any time limited for the upgrading? 

Any time, you can upgrade higher editon, 4, 8 …. cpu cores. Just pay the gap, that is it . don’t need pay full price, no time limited.

How many types of sa chess software you have ? and for 32&64 cpus software, what types of computers can be used for this software? 

We have from 2  to 64 cpu cores edition. If you need 32/64 cpu cores edition which not listed on our website, please feel free to contact us for quote. 

For 16 or 64 cores, the intel xeon cpu such as 5520 E5  E7 series and other xeon cpus can be fit with these kind of editions. 

what is this number .. 5 .. not check the openbook?  

It affects engine very little , so don’t change it , leave default value is ok. 

Can I7 computer with 8 cpus be used with the Quad-Core Ultimate Edition ? 

Yes, but the i7 cpu only 4 cores can be used, so we recommend the Octg-Core  edition for i7 with 8 cores. 

Could you tell me what does "b2e2" at the thinking detail column mean? 

This is uci notation, the board x coordinate from left to right is from a to i, and y coordinate from bottom to top is from 0 to 9, so b2e2 means move the piece red cannon at B file to middle bishop position.(At start position) . 

so other notations like "b2e2" is same , if the board was flipped vertically , to get right notation, please restore original direction. 

Could you tell me how to understand engine score in the thinking detail column? 

There are a few of rules about engine score:

1 score > 0 means advantage for red side, vice versa.

2 mate means engine found a path to checkmate red or black side.

3 score 200 means about one knight advantage for SA Chess  engine. 

Why can't see xiangqi books when I open "game library"?

The reason might be your windows system using non-chinese simplified characters.  To display Chinese words properly, you need change your language settings to Chinese(PRC)  in control panel. 

About to how to change please see here : https://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/int_pr_select_language_version.mspx?mfr=true

or refer to below image.

SA Chess hang there when lanuching on win8 64bit? 

On windows8 64bit system for SA Chess 1.2, Installing VS2010 sp1 redistrubtion package is neccessary. Please go to microsoft website to download, here is direct link : 

http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/8/0/A80747C3-41BD-45DF-B505-E9710D2744E0/vcredist_x64.exe 

Where can I find the "machine id" to receive software key to active?

Now after purchase we need your machine id to produce a key to active your SA Chess software, after launching SA Chess software, you can find your machine id on first software register dialog. 

Why I need input key every time?

This is the reason that win7/8 UAC mode  blocked the write operation of SACHESS, so you can right click on SAChess and choose “ run as administrator”
 
if there's no option: run as administrator.
 
(Assume your OS is windows 7. )
 
I would suggest you to follow these steps:

a. Right click on the program.

b. Under Compatibility tab, check if you have the option “Run this program as an administrator”.

How to copy and paste the key code?

Follow the below mentioned steps to Copy and Paste the key code.

Step 1:    
Select the key code provided to you.

Step 2:    
Press the Ctrl and C keys on your keyboard at a time, this will copy the key code. You can also do this procedure by right clicking on the selected field and selecting the copy option.

 
Step 3:    
Now click on the field where you want to paste the key code, once the cursor appears at this field just press Ctrl and V keys at a time to paste the key code. You can also Paste by right clicking on the selected field and selecting the paste option.

Xiangqi(chinese chess) rules

board and original pieces position like this :

 Traditional Pieces

 Westernized Pieces

The english piece name details:

Please ref this link:  the rules of xiangqi game

Other questions, please feel free to contact us. 

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