The display

Window layout

They have the following contents:

1. Tool bar

Here you find short-cuts to many of the commands found in the menues.

2. Information panel

This section contains a list of the moves played so far in the current game as well as some information about the computer opponent.

3. Status bar

The fields in the status bar are explained in more detail below.

4. Board

This is where you make your moves. See the Getting started section for the basics of how to play a game.

The status bar

From left to right, these are the fields in the status bar:

a) Opening name

The name of the opening according to Robert Gatliff's opening list. In this game, the opening known as Ganglion (or No-Cat) is played.

b) Principal variation

The sequence of moves that Zebra expects to be played in the game. At most six moves are shown, and unless the search depth is 8 or more, the sequence may be even shorter. Notice that it is much easier to beat WZebra if you look at the principal variation because it reveals Zebra's plans and usually suggests what move you should make.
This field can be toggled on/off with the Show principal variation toggle in the Options menu.

c) Position evaluation

Displays Zebra's last assessment of the position. Usually this is an estimate of the final disc difference; e.g. +16.5 means that Zebra thinks it is winning by 40.25-23.75. In the endgame, Win, Draw and Loss are output when Zebra knows who wins but not how much. Furthermore, there are also some preliminary endgame results that may occur, e.g. Win @ 83%. This means that Zebra's selective endgame search algorithms predict a win but that it has not been able to prove it yet. The higher the percentage, the more confident Zebra is of the score.
The evaluation in the example above, +4.29, means that Zebra thinks that it is winning by about 4 discs, corresponding to 34-30.
This field can be toggled on/off with the Show score toggle in the Options menu.

d) Maximum search depth

The maximum number of moves Zebra looked ahead last time it searched a position.
This field can be toggled on/off with the Show search statistics toggle in the Options menu.

e) Nodes

The number of positions encountered last time Zebra searched a position. Abbreviations used: kn=kilonodes, Mn=meganodes, Gn=giganodes.
In the example above, Zebra considered 47'000'000 positions last time it made a move decision.
This field can be toggled on/off with the Show search statistics toggle in the Options menu.

f) Average search speed

The average number of positions considered per second last time Zebra searched a position.
The speed in example above is 1'444'000 nodes per second, achieved in the midgame on an AMD Thunderbird/1.33GHz.
This field can be toggled on/off with the Show search statistics toggle in the Options menu.

g) Side to move

The color of the rectangle indicates whose turn it is to move.

h) Clocks

In time dependent games (see the Time sub-menu in the Zebra settings menu), black's time left is displayed to the left and white's time left is displayed to the right.