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names 2025-06-11 470.1 kB
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Readme.txt   Oct 2024  bookbuilder setup)
==========---------------------------------------
Bookbuilder Opensource/donate-ware
Sourceforge Package Version 0.95, which includes: (for a start)
File setup-new- bb43.exe   (with this new readme.txt )

New (Oct); book (now 4 mil pos) based on endnodes analyzed with Obsidian (1.Nf3! best move) 
The book merged(0.5) is a combination of positions analyzed by Dann Corbit (with SF)
and the default book, and thus becomes a bit bigger, but also a bit more inaccurate

New (Sept): many new gambit names added (in the userns file)
alsosomecomments added for special positions.

Default  book.pbs (Sept 2023) almost three two million positions  quite accurately analyzed 
Note in the update subdirectory on sourceforge i may later post some newer books.

Setupbb4.exe will install the bookbuilder program on windows, and then you an run bookbuilder with bb4_3.exe
The sourcecode (Borland BCB6)s and files for making setup file to be added later at sourceforge.

ALthough a 'trial version' for a week, the serial codes are now given for free (as donateware) Normally if someone  would like 
to continue  the program  after this period, they would  have to register (for 25 Eur) But now you can register for FREE: 
-------------------------------------------------------
Method for registration: go to help entry on menu 
username: customer@2013
serial code(s) FA95  997
---------------------------------
Compatibility settings for windows10: set at WinVista (servicepack 2)
otherwise the 'pipe'exe (communication with the crafty engine (wcrafty.exe) won't work

Enjoy, but use (and/or modify) at your own peril :)

NB based on the last commercial  Bookbuilder VERSION 4.3b   (similar to 4.3 Sources will have been added to sourceforge,  in the 
sources subdirectory. The program Bbsetup.exe these source was compiled (with a project file) with Borland Cbuilder_ version 6,

Installation: 
doubleclick  file bbsetup-bb43 .exe

(nb setup.exe is made with an old version of nsis.exe  (Nsis install utility) but  coudn't find the right version 
so for the moment  an older version is included (might work as well)
the setup file was with Nsis program (old version 1.13beta, include in bblastsetup.zip)

Default (medium) database 'book.pbs' updated (2022) Endnodes were analyzed with Stockfish NNUE version !!

NB website www.bookbuilder.nl not exist anymore, but new
is continued at www.superchess.blogspot.com

Crafty analysis engine updated , now latest version 25.6 with now x64 version default;  OFcourse not so good as SFNnue 
but it's adquate to spot/check  tactics regarding the wcrafty.exe engine now default 6 threads (defined in crafty.rc)
if you still have  a 32bits (win) operating system which  works properly,  then in bookbuilder directory rename wcraftyx32 
to wcrafty.exe . (the crafty version (32 or 64)  should be compatible with your computer).
Also in the crafty.rc file  you can edit the number of threads for a   multicore PC. Now default 2 (so not working for single Cpu!) . 
If you have more cpu  threads you can increasse this ofcourse (eg mt=4). Also now updated 'default'book 
again book.pbs (>1 million positions), 

NEW: there is a 'book training' option in Bb itself, it's a bit buggy, but you can try it out for fun.
For a more solid book training we also converted (an old  version of)  the book to a playable 'ENGINE' book;  
the engine 'yace'  appeared most suitable for Bb book conversion, so we included  the w(freeware) engine 
yace and the book dbbook.bin (see directory yace-pb); you now can practice your openings against the Bbuilder repertoire 
(made  a bit wider with the start.pgn) with complete games!  Do this  by   installing 
the yace engine under an interface (winboard or ChessPartner  recommended)   
and use the engine book dbbook.bin (instead of  interface book). 
----------------------------------------------------------------
A full explanation of book-engine training is  described in the 
------------------------------------------------------
readme2.txt which is in the bookbuilder directory (which you also can see under the help menu, 'playing games with Bb'
-----------------------------------------------------
NB1 the help file bb40.chm did not work anymore on most computers, so in line with the latest IT customs, i've converted it to 
bb40.pdf, which now is included in the bb40setup.exe file again; when accessing it from the menu, it will work if your computer 
can recognize .pdf files; on the left you can see (via bookmarkst) the table of contents.

------------------------------------------------------------
Description of latest Bookbuilder(4.3) info, 
(for details on USING THE PROGRAM: see the HELP File (F1)

Note running it under Linux Wine it works fine. 

Contents
========
I.1	system requirements, install notes
I.2. 	How to install the program 
I.2.1   Getting started with opening study (NEW !!)
	--------------------------------------
I.3. 	Miscellaneous Install stuff
-------------------------------------------
II.     About registration, etc. 
III.	Known problems, limitations, bugreporting, etc.
------------------------------------------------------
IV      Opening repertoire; for beginners (NEW !!)
IV.1 Explanation of opening codes (+=, etc.)
---------------------------------------------------
V.	Final notes, copyright, etc.

I.1. System requirements
-----------------------
Operating Systems: older Windows 95/98/and so on but Win7 recommended .. Win8/10 alsos work , change
compatibility settings on Windows 10 to 'Win Vista SP3  !!so recommended to change the compatibility  settings  
to run it as administrator (right click on icon for properties,  and then adjust). NB it still is a system32 program, 
but it also works on windows64; especially if you set  the  compatibility settings to win95 as advised above.

Screen resolution at least 1024* 768 recommended (lower resolution  is  possible,   but the design  is not 
optimal anymore  or such settings, eg the  ' add  variation' or change details for a certain  opening cannot be seen 
anymore;  DISC space: about 350Mb or  (more recommended, especially 
when you want to generate pgn output files).

RAM Memory: at least 100 Mb free space (more is certainly recommended  especially when using WinX7 and/or when 
using the large book, 200Mb) NB you can adjust the amount of RAM used by the online engine Crafty  in the 
crafty.rc file; for more info please visit the ftp site of dr Hyatt. In the file crafty.rc (part of Bb install package) it is 
specified that crafty (23.8) is using 64 Mb (and 32 for pawn-hashing). However if you don't have enough Ram memory 
available, you can reduce this with 50 %, eg. to 24 Mb resp 8Mb.
(this will slow down the Crafty engine, however).

NB please note that the evaluation with the Crafty engine may be different than the evaluation of  the (end)nodes in 
the book, as we have analyzed most of them recently with the  worldchampion chess engine Rybka, to improve the quality of  
the book. Thus the online Crafty engine should mainly been seen  as a tactics-checker (in the opening phase), or as a tool
to suggest some other moves or opening ideas.

CPU: the faster the better.. (although  the backsolving/minimaxing in Bookbuilder is a very fast algorithm, the 
online analysis will benefit from a fast CPU!). (i've tried Crafty smp on a double core cpu and it seems
to work, also with win64 edition) For special Crafty compiles eg for win32 or win64 you can use google.

Please ensure your graphics driver is up to date with your windows version otherwise some problems might occur
(see II). Monitor resolution recommended : 1024*768 lower is possible, and in later versions you can resize 
the board, but we then  maybe another piece set is better)

Finally it is recommended *not* to use other CPU-(and or -RAM) intensive programs  simultaneously with Bookbuilder, when making
an online analysis, as this will make the program (and the other  progam) considerably slower..


I.2. How to install the program 
-------------------------------------------------------------
Simple: just run the install file (SetupBBuilder4.exe) from the download. It will unpack the program, 
create the structures, initialize the shortcuts. After that you can run the program either from the start menu, or 
by clicking the  BookBuilder  icon on the Desktop. Carefully watch the text presented during installation, 
as there are some notes about Windows  requirements. WinMe(millennium) users: see the technical info in the 
license.txt file.


I.2.1 Getting started with Opening study 
----------------------------------------
A quick start to study opening theory, especially for beginners (see also the Help command (F1)) 
after having started the program press the icon 'Display' (above right the chess board, right from 'Opening);
Now a list of (basic) opening names appear; the variants (sub-openings) will be displayed in the right window.
To make it easier for beginners, some openings have been indicated with a COLOR. 

BLUE means recommended for BEGINNERS, playing WHITE RED means recommended for BEGINNERS, playing BLACK
GREEN means recommend (for study) for more ADVANCED players See also the beginners repertoire in IV (in this readme.txt ).

Example:
Lets assume you want to study (after 1.e4!) the French Defence (e6 after 1.e4); click with the mouse on one opening,
eg.Alekhines defence (blue), and now scroll, with the point down-arrow until you have found 'French defense' (blue).
Now press ENTER. Now you the cursor is automatically transferred to thewindow with variants, and you can scroll 
again with the arrows, up and down. For beginners, scroll to the 'definition' variant, and then press ENTER again.

Now above the window with variants commands are displayed to ANIMATE the opening. Go with the cursor to 'Animate'
(NB sometimes you have to press it TWICE to get it working), and the opening line will be animated on the board.
(in this case only e4, and then e6, which is French definition). Now press Finish (below animation), and lets find
how to play ideally both for white and black. For this first open the book, with File (above left),
and and then Open book, and choose book.pbs (only if you cannot see moves in the 'recommended moves' window,
otherwise the book.pbs has been loaded automatically). Now just press ENTER to play the 'best' move (out of 
book) to continue attacking the French defense. Press Enter again, until you dont see anymore
moves in the recommended moves window. Above the recommended moves box, you can now find a
description for the played variant.  Ofcourse this is only one variant; if you want
to study more variants, repeat the procedure above and choose any variant you want (NB some can be
very odd for a beginner, but its learnful to know how to play against such variants in the long run).
See IV for a recommended repertoire (beginners only).

You can also start the engine for analysis, by  pressing 'space' (see the Help file for further info).

Please note that with WinXP and/or NT the online analysis (Crafty) may  start  slowly sometimes; in such a case we recommend to press the 
spacebar a few times, and if necessary scroll back and forth a few  moves with the arrows (right-left etc.). (the message tellicsnoalias is a 
built-in Crafty command wich means tell ICS (Internet Chess Club)  no-alias-(name) which you can disregard.. 
(in the next version i'll try to compile a Crafty 20.x version myself..)


II About registration, etc. (Not Neede anymore
--------------------------------------------------
Although the program says 'trial version' for one week,  Registration nr now is given for Free !
See above how to registrate 
------------------------------------------------------------
III. Known problems, limitations, bugs etc.
(more info about the source, later)
----------------------------------------------------
As  version(4.3b) iwas only a  slightly newer version   some  bugs might still occur; yet we don't support it anymore
Yet for questions about the open source version you can mail  superchess@ziggo.nl and i'll see if i can respond.

NB known problems/bugs mentioned below will be fixed asap.

A  bug with WinMe may occur after installing the new version, when an access violation occurs, and initial strange colors occur,
This is resolved by using 'tools' and then using the color schem (themes) 'default'. Then exit the program and startup again.

Also, unfortunately there still may occur some bugs sometimes with the (new) internal piece moving generator, when using
the 'play this move ? function (when using engine analysis) or when using the book-training option (if this occurs we
recommend to go back a few moves (by clicking in the actual game window), and then just move the pieces on  the 
board (the move validation of the board works perfectly :)

For the time being the full minimax (as in Bbuilder 3.5-7)  has been disabled, as it still was a bit slowly for big 
books (we are planning to make it even faster, and add  a progress indicator for such cases in release 5. And
for the (high quality) book.pbs which is included in BBuilder 4.1 we believe the line recalc feature is enough
(users who wish to use the full minimax feature, can still download Bbuilder 3.6 on superchess.com for this purpose).

WARNING: although its possible to create a booksize  almost the size of your RAM memory, before doing so its 
highly recommended *not* to use other programs  simultaneously with Bookbuilder, when making such a book, 
eg. when reading  in huge pgn files (when Ram memory is  fully loaded, the program starts swapping memory to disk; 
this also will make the program considerably slower).

Small note about version 4.2x: the Crafty-pgn output option is not yet enabled; we'll fix this asap (for the time being
you can use Bbuilder-3.6 on superchess.com for this purpose).

Other limitations: - the evaluation codes aren't perfect yet; at a later stage we will add moves for unclear, prevent
the switching of black/white codes += to =+ etc. (occurs sometimes in case of transpositions)
- when using the booktraining feature (which gets more useful when you have larger books) the engine plays
automatically a move (8 halfmoves deep) when you play with white (computer plays black); with opposite colors
you only get the online analysis, and can decide yourself. - when using enter to play a recommended move, there still
is a small bug which can cause switching color of a piece

Finally, some bugs can appear of which the cause presently  (4.2) still is not known precisly ; we will fix this asap.
- sometimes there is a message like 'canvas doesn't allow  drawing' or occasionally something like 'access denied'(),  or '
system resources exceeded' (the latter hopefully now solved with 4.2) In case you are working  with the program, and one of such 
error messages appear,  we recommend to *straightaway* save you  latest book  version (using Alt-Cntrl-S) in order not to lose 
your work,  then leave the program (Alt-F4), and then restart again;  this should temporarily fix the problem..
When using a slow Win(XP), it also is recommended then to check in the 'processes' list of the taskmanager if the crafty engine
has been disabled (wcrafty.exe), and if not, terminate it.

Technical comments latest version (4.2):
- some minor changes
- much better book.pbs book, although small
good enough for beginners to start learning some theory

IV. OPENING LIST (REPERTOIRE) FOR BEGINNERS  (version JUNE 2006; 

NB recommended (to be known) for white player is indicated below with a (W) on the left (BLUE)
All other openings/variants only have  to be known when playing black (RED) !
For beginners we recommend to start always with 1.e4 ! Then learning some basic defences against 1.d4
For more advanced players ofcourse 1.d4 also is good.

OPENING					VARIANT
(W)Alekhine's defense 			Alekhine's def, 3.d4
Birds opening				Bird opening 1.. d5
Bishops opening				Definition
 " "					Berlin defense
(W)Caro-Kann defense			Exchange
    "           "			Anti-Caro-Kann
Catalan opening				Definition
Colle system				Main Line
English Defense				English, 1..e5
(W)French Defense			Exchange variation
Giuoco Piano (Italian)			Main Line
Giuoco Pianissimo			Definition
Kings Gambit Accepted			3.Nf3 (Kings Knight)
Nimzo Indian Defense			Definition
Nimzo Indian Defense			Saemisch variation
Petrov's (Russian) Defense		Definition, 3 Nxe5
(W)Petrov's (Russian) Defense		Modern(Steinitz) attack
(W)Philidor Defense			Exchange variation
(W)Pirc Defense				150 attack
Ponziani opening			Definition
Reti's opening				1..d5
(W)Ruy Lopez (Spanish) opening		Berlin defense, Mortimer var.
Ruy Lopez (Spanish) opening		4.0-0
Ruy Lopez (Spanish) opening		Open variation, Showalter var.
(W)Ruy Lopez (Spanish) opening		Closed, 9.. h3
(W)Ruy Lopez (Spanish) opening		Classical (Cordel) defense
(W)Ruy Lopez (Spanish) opening		Steinitz defense deferred
Scotch opening				Main line
(W)Scandinavian				(center couner) definition
(W) Sicilian opening			Rossolimo variant
Three Knights opening			Definition
Vienna opening				Definition

General comments for beginners: against  1.d4 we recommend Nf6 (and then aiming for 
NimzoIndian after Nc3 or Bogo-Indian after Nf3)

Against 1.e4 we recommend ..e5 (lots of variations..)  for absolute beginners, 
and thereafter, ie after more study  to choose c6 (Caro Kann) 
or e6 (French) as this  will be more difficult for the white player.

NB later openings for more advanced players are indicated with GREEN in the program, but
you have to study yourself which variations to choose, and whether you want to choose
them for white or black in your repertoire..

IV.1 Explanation of opening codes
-------------------------------------------
 (form white perspective)
+- considerable advantage for white
+= slight advantage for white
= equal (drawish) position
+= slight advantage for black
-+ considerable advantage for black

(unclear has not been implemented yet).

When using the engine, evaluations still have to be inputted as numerical score (100 = one pawn);
via the file score.dat such values are then converted to the above mentioned opening codes.

V. Final notes, copyright, etc.
--------------------------------
Programming by:
 - Bas Hamstra (The Netherlands, Groningen (first versions))
 - Michel Langeveld, (The Netherlands, Noordwijk (version 3.8))
 - Deak Ferenc, (Romania, Brasov (versions 3.9-4.0.3))
Ideas, testing, evaluation
 - Didzis Cirulis (Estonia)
 - Jef Kaan (Netherlands)
 - Tony Werten(xinix) 
Board & Piece graphics, Graphical Themes layout by Anca Schlupek (Romania)
All rights reserved, copyright protected by international 
law; Crafty 'engine' by dr. R. Hyatt, USA.

Copying of the package is now  allowed under the GLP licence
(Bookbuilder/tm was registered at Shieldmark, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 
software concept at mr.v.d.Bout & ten Hoopen, Voorburg, NL, 

Although the program has been properly checked and has been found to work 
normally on a high-performance personal computers, under  different operating 
systems, K.E.C and/or a (possible) other distributor  of this program cannot accept 
any liabilities, especially not outside  Netherlands because above mentioned jurisdiction. 

Support, guidelines how to make an optimal book, etc. was only be given to those who have registered
as open source program, support now is not given anymore


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED KEC, COPYRIGHT KEC
The Hague, The Netherlands.

Although properly checked, K.E.C cannot accept any  liabilities as result of using this software or 
its content (eg. the chess openings itself). 

some comments and feedback possible to
superchess@ziggo.nl
(but i don'[t read this inbox often, only every 3  monhts or so ;
Only some support, answering questions, if you make a donation:
https://olanesti-md.info/en/ngo-en/associatie-ok-sopport-2

--------------------------------
Source: readme (1).txt, updated 2024-10-29