Clericus 1.03 FAQ

Q.: What's the difference between Hopeless Chess and Clericus?

A.: Hopeless is just a plain engine, whereas Clericus is engine + its native GUI + opening book editor, evaluation function editor and search parametrization device.

Q.: When I try to run Clericus,  I don't see the pieces, just some strange marks on the board.

A.: Most probably You forgot to download Chess Merida font. You can also try to use one of chess fonts present on Your computer, changing the CHESS_FONT parameter in the clericus.ini file. Please note however that fonts use different letters for pieces and not all of them will do.

Q.: Clericus has a scroll bar around the board, the squares are too big, and the pieces are too small. Its graphics is a complete mess!

A.: It's due to differences between our graphic cards or screen settings. It can be mended by changing BOARD_SIZE, SQUARE_SIZE and/or CHESS_FONT_SIZE in the clericus.ini file.

Q.: Clericus doesn't run under WinBoard / Arena. Is there a bug?

A.: No, Clericus doesn't run under WinBoard, because it's a standalone. Use Hopeless, please.

Q.: But Hopeless doesn't run under WinBoard! Is there a bug?

A.: There is an obscure problem, occurring mostly on older computers. I'm currently working on it. It doesn't happen under Arena, though. If You want to use WinBoard, try the following a) perhaps a modified version by Alessandro Scotti will work, b) occasionally Hopeless will load if You immediately try again. This problem is especially hard for me, as I use a WBUnit by dr Maciej Szmit, but I'll try to ask him about the problem.

Q.: My computer is old and both programs do not work on it. Are you going to do anything about it?

A.: Yes, a lightweight version of Hopeless / Clericus will be released soon. It will have smaller hash table and smaller opening book.