---
name: "phalanx"
section: "6"
platform: "linux"
package: "phalanx"
version: "25-1.1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/phalanx"
---

# phalanx(6)

Chess playing program

## NAME

Phalanx - Chess playing program

## SYNOPSIS

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

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the **phalanx** program. This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution (but may be used by others), because the original program does not have a manual page.

**phalanx** is a chess playing program.  It is partially xboard compatible. Under xboard, it can play games, force & undo moves, and show thinking. In this version, you cannot set positions with xboard.

It is also possible to run phalanx without xboard. Do **phalanx -?** to get a list of command line options.  One important command of phalanx's ASCII interface is **help.**

**phalanx** uses (traditional) 10x12 board implementation. There are three often used board implementations: "8x8" (GNU Chess), "bitboard" (Crafty), and "10x12" (Nimzo, Phalanx). In short, "10x12" is easy to implement and the code is small (==fast on PC).  Opening book is small, simple, hand-written.

## OPTIONS

**-t** \<transposition table size in kilobytes\>

**-f** \<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\>

**-S** \<secondary book directory\>

**-L** \<learning file directory\>

**-g** \<log file name\>

## EXAMPLES

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

xboard **-fcp** "phalanx **-l**+ **-r800**"

## SEE ALSO

/usr/share/doc/phalanx,  *[xboard(6)](/xboard/6.md)*

## 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)](/help2man/1.md)* and then edited slightly to clean it up.