# Playing a Game

When Arasan starts up, it is waiting for you to make a move. It assumes that you, the user, have the White pieces. If you want to play Black, bring down the Game menu and select "Computer plays White". If you do this, you probably also want to turn the board around, which you can do from the Game menu by selecting "Rotate board".

Arasan will respond to moves as you make them. The default playing level for Arasan is a fixed-time 5-second search, which will cause Arasan to move quite rapidly. See the Search Limits section for information on how to change the playing level.

Arasan detects draws due to insufficient material, stalemate, the three-move repetition rule, and the 50-move drawing rule.

You can take back a move by typing ^T (Control-T) or selecting "Take back move" from the Game menu. Typing ^F (Control-F) or selecting "Forward Move" from the Game menu will "replay" a move already made; in effect, this undoes a "take back" operation.

If it is your turn to move, Arasan can give you a hint. Type ^H (Control-H) or select "Give Hint" from the Game menu. After a short pause, Arasan will display a legal move, from either the opening book or from a brief search. If you want to make that move, select "Accept" from the dialog box; otherwise, select "Another" and Arasan will display another move. Note: Arasan spends only a very limited amount of time calculating the hint move, so it may not necessarily be a strong move, or the best move on the board.

If it is your move and you want Arasan to calculate a move for you, using its normal search depth, type ^G (Control-G) or select "Go (compute move)" from the Game Menu. If it is the computer's move, this menu selection can also be used to force Arasan to stop thinking and make its move immediately. Typing ^G every time a search completes will cause Arasan to play a game against itself.

At any time, you can get a listing of the moves made so far by selecting "Show Game Moves" from the Game menu. Moves are shown in algebraic notation.

Typing ^N (Control-N) or selecting "New" from the File menu will put the board back into its starting position and begin a new game.