---
name: "sjaakii"
section: "6"
platform: "linux"
package: "sjaakii"
version: "1.4.1-3"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/sjaakii"
---

# sjaakii(6)

xboard-compatible chess and chess-variant engine 'SjaakII'

## NAME

sjaakii - xboard-compatible chess and chess-variant engine 'SjaakII'

## SYNOPSIS

**sjaakii** \[-log\|-newlog \[filename\]\] \[-variant name\] \[-no\_user\_variants\] \[-xboard\|-uci\|-uci\|-ucci\] \[variant file\]

## DESCRIPTION

**sjaakii** is a program that plays chess and chess variants.  It uses the xboard/winboard chess-engine protocol to communicate. Apart from normal chess, SjaakII can play Seirawan Chess, Mongolian Shatar, Makruk (including variants ASEAN and Ai-Wok), Shatranj, Sittuyin (Burmese Chess), Crazy House Chess, Chessgi, Spartan Chess, Pocket Knight Chess, King-of-th-Hill, Knightmate, Amazon Chess, Chancellor Chess, Berolina Chess, Los Alamos Chess, Micro Chess, Capablanca Chess, Gothic Chess, Embassy Chess, Courier Chess, Grand Chess, Opulent Chess, Omega Chess, Shogi (including variants Mini Shogi, Sho Shogi and Tori Shogi) and Xiang-Qi. Other variants can be added through a configuration file.

See [**xboard**(6)](/xboard/6.md) for instructions about how to use **sjaakii** through xboard. To start up quickly, you just need the command: **xboard -fcp sjaakii**.

Some of the variants SjaakII plays are only partially supported by XBoard, and can only be played whith the legality-testing function of the latter switched off.

## OPTIONS

- **-log \[filename\]**

  Append all communication by SjaakII and XBoard to a logfile. If no filename is specified, the log is written to sjaakii.log.

- **-newlog \[filename\]**

  As **-log**, but the file is overwritten rather than added to.

- **-variant name**

  Normally, SjaakII starts with variant "normal" (regular chess), but it can be made to start with any other named variant with this option.

- **-no\_user\_variants**

  Do not read the default variant configuration file. You can still specify a file in the engine options.

- **-xboard**

  Start in xboard mode rather than the default mode.

- **-uci**

  Start in UCI mode rather than the default mode.

- **-usi**

  Start in USI mode rather than the default mode.

- **-ucci**

  Start in UCCI mode rather than the default mode.

- **variant file**

  Read variant descriptions from the named file.

## AVAILABILITY

From http://www.eglebbk.dds.nl/program/chess-index.html

## SEE ALSO

[**xboard**(6)](/xboard/6.md)

## STANDARDS

WinBoard, [**xboard**(6)](/xboard/6.md) interface ("Chess Engine Communication Protocol")

## AUTHOR

Evert Glebbeek \<eglebbk@dds.nl\>.

This manual page was based on the man page for Fairy-Max by H.G. Muller and was generated with [**pod2man**(1)](/pod2man/1.md).