CSA Network Game

Choose Game → Network Game (CSA)… to open the network game dialog. It is available when no game or analysis is running.

Player on this side	Choose Human to play yourself, or Engine to let a USI engine play. Engines are those registered in Settings → Engine Settings, and Engine Settings... changes their options.
Select from history	Pick a server you connected to before (up to 10) to fill in Host, Port, ID and Connection security. Enter the password each time.
Protocol	The connection uses CSA Protocol 1.2.1.
Host and Port	The server's host name or IP address, and its port (4081 by default).
ID and Password	Your login for the server. The ID uses letters, digits, "_" and "-" (up to 32 characters); the password is up to 32 ASCII characters. The password is not saved in the settings file.
Connection security	Standard CSA (plaintext)：The default connection type. Choose this for a standard shogi-server or floodgate. You can use localhost, an IP address or a remote host name. TLS (encrypted)：Choose this for a TLS-enabled CSA server or a TLS termination proxy. The server certificate and host name are verified. Verification or connection failures never cause an automatic switch to plaintext.
Advanced tab: Keeping the connection alive	"Send empty lines during a game to keep the connection alive" (every 40 seconds by default) and "Use TCP keep-alive" prevent the connection from dropping during a long think. "Thinking time margin" is subtracted from the time given to the engine to allow for network delay.
Advanced tab: Games	"Number of games", "Reconnect and wait for the next game when the server disconnects after a game", "Flip the board when playing White", automatic record saving (step 8), and the shogi-server game name and preferred side (step 2).

The connection type is saved in settings and server history. A previously saved TLS selection is restored, so select Standard CSA (plaintext) when connecting to a standard shogi-server.

While a field is missing, a hint such as "Please enter the host address." appears at the bottom of the dialog and Connect stays disabled. Host, ID and password cannot contain spaces.

The server decides the time control and other conditions, so ShogiBoardQ has no settings for them. On shogi-server, enter the game name in "Game name" on the Advanced tab (entering game-name,password in the Password field also works). Two players who log in with the same game name play each other.

Game name	name-time-byoyomi, with times in seconds. Example: test-600-10 is 10 minutes plus 10 seconds of byoyomi
Increment (Fischer)	Add F at the end to add time after every move instead of byoyomi. Example: test-300-10F
Preferred side	Choose Black or White in "Preferred side". Appending -B (Black) or -W (White) to the game name also works. Example: test-600-10-B,pw

For shogi-server running on your own computer, set Host to localhost or 127.0.0.1, use its listening port (default 4081), and select Standard CSA (plaintext). A standard shogi-server does not accept a direct TLS connection.

Connecting to floodgate

Use the following settings from the official floodgate connection guide. No account registration is required.

Host	wdoor.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Port	4081
Connection security	Standard CSA (plaintext)
ID	A unique ID that does not overlap with another participant
Password	Replace trip in floodgate-300-10F,trip with your own dedicated string. Keep the entire Password field within 32 ASCII characters.
Advanced tab	For this method, leave Game name empty and set Preferred side to No preference.

Logged-in players are paired at minute 00 and 30 of each hour. The time control is 5 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move. To play successive games, select two or more games or Unlimited and enable "Reconnect and wait for the next game when the server disconnects after a game".

When you play as a human, click pieces on the board on your turn. The opponent's moves arrive from the server and appear on the board, and the game record lists each move with the time used. The clocks show the time control sent by the server.

The CSA Log tab at the bottom shows the traffic and the connection status. Copy copies the whole log, Clear clears the view, and you can send commands from the input field. The Game Info tab records the player names and the server's time control.

With Engine selected for the player on this side, the engine plays automatically within the server's time control. Thinking, USI Log and the Evaluation Graph are shown as in ordinary games.

Game → Move Now stops the engine's search and plays its best move so far. When the engine resigns, ShogiBoardQ sends a resignation to the server; when it declares entering king, the declaration is sent to the server.

On your turn, Resign, Abort and Entering King Declaration in the Game menu are sent to the server. A declaration is sent after you confirm it. They cannot be sent on the opponent's turn.

The server judges the result, time-outs and whether a declaration is valid. The game continues even if a clock on the screen reaches 0, until the server ends it. Servers that do not support aborting (such as shogi-server) may treat an abort as a foul.

When the game ends, the result and its cause are shown and the end (such as "▲Resign") is recorded in the record pane. With "Save the game record automatically when a game ends" on the Advanced tab, the record is saved to the chosen folder; otherwise save it from the File menu. Afterwards you can replay the record or start another network game. With "Number of games" set to two or more, or unlimited, the client stays logged in and waits for the next game conditions. "Reconnect and wait for the next game when the server disconnects after a game" keeps playing on servers such as shogi-server that close the connection after every game.

If the connection is lost or the engine can no longer return a move, the game ends as aborted.