Detailed description of Chess Assistant 7.1

9.2. Detailed descriptions:

The tabbed toolbars at the top permit you to access easily the most basic functions and configure your most common settings such as your usual seek choices, your finger notes, as well as automatic hello and goodbye messages sent at the start and end of a game. There is also the 4th toolbar that only appears when you are playing a game with basic playing options such as sending or accepting draw offers, resigning, etc.

Seek toolbar

Seek toolbar allows you to configure all of your usual playing choices, so that you can set a button to send out a seek (the ICC term for sending a public challenge) for a game in 2 minutes with a 3 second increment for opponents rated between 1800 and 2100. There is also a button for specific challenges to specific opponents, and naturally a button to request a rematch. If you've decided you've got 3 usual seek choices that you enjoy using but notice there aren’t enough buttons to configure, you can simply add as many buttons as you like (or delete them), configuring each one to your taste. The same goes for specific match requests.

CA’s tabbed toolbar: Seek toolbar

User toolbar

User toolbar is used to set Hello and Good Bye messages (either automatically, or manually) or any command or message you like. Here you could also set specific commands such as setting a Quietplay command at the beginning of a game and then removing it once the game is over. Here you may also add and remove buttons that you consider fit.

CA’s tabbed toolbar: User toolbar

Example: Suppose you wanted to start every game on a foot of good sportsmanship and decided to start them all by automatically saying “Hi, may your position self-immolate.” Here is what you'd do in that case:

Open the local menu of the Hello button and select Edit.
There in the dialogue box choose Say from the drop-down menu, and type “Hi, may your position self-immolate.” In the text box to the right. Check then Auto Send box, or if you want to leave this as a manual option (depending on you opponent or your mood), you leave it unchecked. Note that you could always change this later by choosing Auto from the button’s local menu.
Press Ok.

Personal toolbar

The third toolbar, Personal, is designed to manage your personal data.

9.2.2. Personal toolbar

Here you can set your finger notes with the Info button , variables (such as autoflag, whether you are open or not to challenges, seeing shouts, etc.) with the Variables button , the formula (specific conditions that you require to play a game – ex: the opponent must be rated less than 1800 and can’t be a computer account), and the fourth button , Human/Engine, allows one to start playing with the help of a built-in playing engine. You can make the engine play instead of you at anytime, but this option is only available when you're playing under a “computer” account or as a guest (you may play only unrated games in the latter case). Please note that the program will tell the opponent that the engine is started if you turn it on at anytime as a guest.