PHALANX(6)

💖 PHALANX(6) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the Games Manual page for phalanx(6) — yes that's the manual name, and yes you're in the right place. sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, and let's talk about a chess program that's lowkey iconic.

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✨ NAME ✨

Phalanx — a chess playing program, and honestly? it ate. 👑

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

phalanx [options] [<moves> <minutes> [<increment in seconds>]]
phalanx [options] [<seconds per move>]
phalanx bench
phalanx bcreate [options]

like, four whole ways to summon it. pick your fighter. 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so this manual page is a lil brief tour of the phalanx program, and ngl it exists specifically because it was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution (though other people are totally allowed to use it too) — the way the original program just... doesn't have a manual page. not a single one. so we made one. you're welcome. 🫶

phalanx is a chess playing program. it is partially xboard compatible, iykyk. under xboard, it can play games, force & undo moves, and show thinking. but — and this is the important part, bestie — in this version, you cannot set positions with xboard. that's just how it is. don't try it. 😭

it is also possible to run phalanx without xboard, which is giving independent main character energy. do phalanx -? to get a list of command line options. one important command of phalanx's ASCII interface is help. ✨

phalanx uses the (traditional) 10x12 board implementation. there are three often used board implementations, and the girlies keep bringing them up:

• "8x8" (GNU Chess)
• "bitboard" (Crafty)
• "10x12" (Nimzo, Phalanx)

in short — and this is the whole vibe — "10x12" is easy to implement and the code is small (== fast on PC). the opening book is small, simple, and hand-written. no cap. 🎀

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

okay this is the part everyone skips and then wonders why nothing works. don't be that girl. read them all. ⭐

• -t <transposition table size in kilobytes> — sets the transposition table size, in kilobytes.
• -f <fixed search time in seconds> — sets a fixed search time, in seconds.
• -x <+/- > — xboard mode on/off. default: on.
• -p <+/- > — permanent brain on/off. default: off.
• -s <+/- > — show thinking on/off. default: off.
• -c <+/- > — cpu time. default: off.
• -o <+/- > — polling input. default: on.
• -b <+/- > — opening book. default: on.
• -r <resign value in centipawns> — default: 0 (no resigning).
• -e <easy level 0...100> — default: 0 (best play).
• -l <+/- > — learning on/off. default: on.
• -v — print version and exit.
• -P <primary book directory> — sets the primary book directory.
• -S <secondary book directory> — sets the secondary book directory.
• -L <learning file directory> — sets the learning file directory.
• -g <log file name> — sets the log file name.

friendly reminder bestie: those +/- ones are literally the characters + and -. plus means on, minus means off. the -o - in the examples below is not a typo, it's the vibe. 💀

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

here's how the girlies actually run it:

phalanx -c+ -s+ -o - -x- -f 60 -t4000

xboard -fcp "phalanx -l+ -r800"

that second one is a whole mood. 🔥

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

• /usr/share/doc/phalanx
• xboard(6)

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Phalanx was written by Dusan Dobes <dobes@math.muni.cz>. 💜

This manual page was written by Stephen Stafford <bagpuss@debian.org> for the Debian GNU/Linux project, but may be used by others. It was written with the assistance of help2man(1) and then edited slightly to clean it up. 🎀

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and that's the whole page, bestie! this was Phalanx XXII, dated May 2001 — yes, she's an elder icon and she still slays. go play some chess. mwah. 💖✨🦋🌸🫶