PGN stands for Portable Game Notation. This is a file format for storing chess games (both the moves and various header data such as players' names) that is easily read by people while also easy for programs to parse.
Questions tagged [pgn]
147 questions
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Is there a text editor with syntax highlighting for PGN files?
In Notepad++ or similar editors, one can get syntax highlighting for multiple file formats/languages. I'd like to have something usable on Windows that would let me do this with pgn files (see header tags, and annotations in different colors from…
Joe
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Does any PGN actually use the '%' (escape) or ';' (rest of line comment) mechanisms?
Trawling through the PGN standard, I was surprised by two of the specifications:
An escape mechanism triggered by % at the start of a new line:
There is a special escape mechanism for PGN data. This mechanism is triggered by a percent sign…
Remellion
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9
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Add comments in a pgn file
I have a pgn file containing a game. I want to add a comment into the game (like at move 23. - This is a ok move etc.) using words and not symbols. Is it possible to do this?
Bill Wang
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6
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Does anything actually use numeric annotation glyphs (NAGs)?
Numeric Annotation Glyphs, or NAGs for short, are tokens defined by the PGN standard to allow concise annotation of moves. They consist of a dollar sign ($) followed by a number, e.g. $1 means "good move" (like !), $22 means "white is in zugzwang",…
Remellion
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6
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What's the meaning of "%evp" in a PGN comment?
Example:
{[%evp 0,17,14,14,14,-25,-15,-15,7,7,55,48,48,48,472,228,802,802,804,771]}
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 Qh4+ 4. Kf1 Bc5 5. d4 Bb6 6. Nf3 Qg4
What's the meaning of these numbers when used together with %evp?
ethanxyz_0
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6
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Valid PGN variations?
I've received the following PGN text that I suspect invalid:
8.f4
{0.22/17 0 last book move}
8...e5
( 8...b5
( 8...Qb6
( 8...Qc7 9.a3
What exactly the position the moves come from is unimportant. Please note the PGN…
SmallChess
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6
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4 answers
What are all of the possible tags for PGN?
In a PGN file, there are tags like:
[Event "Tournament"]
[White "John Smith"]
And so on. I would like to know all the possible tags for PGN files so I can use them in a PGN file that my friend is demanding for.
Bill Wang
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5
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2 answers
What are the *musts* of PGN?
Is the result of a game a (the) must at the end of every PGN?
(I mean any of "1-0", "0-1", "1/2-1/2", and "*")
So... we can have a whole set of tags, then a "1/2-1/2" result with no moves, and enjoy it as a valid PGN. A PGN with no moves.
[Event:…
Jorge Al Najjar
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5
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1 answer
PGN with arrows and circles
I recently imported a PGN file that I got from chesscafe.com into lichess.org, and was surprised to see arrows and circles on the board! Looking at the file, I figured that these graphical elements are encoded in comments like this:
{[%csl…
itub
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4
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What is valid PGN?
I want to build a program that makes and reads PGNs. What is valid PGN? What arguments are valid in the header?
What values are mandatory, what can be omitted?
Can I find somewhere rules for composing PGNs?
Superluminal
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PGN database with games of players with ELO 1000 - 2000
I do the research on a difference of players' behaviour on different levels. There is no problem to find games with players rated over 2000 ELO but I lack those below 2000. Does anybody know a source with such games?
stanwar
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4
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Is there a Unicode-compatible alternative to PGN?
One of the problems with PGN is that it requires ASCII, while names of players often contain non-ASCII characters. (And of course, many names are not written in the Latin alphabet ...)
The background to this question is the rendering of non-ASCII…
Tsundoku
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3
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Pgn crash course
Where I can find a fast smart pgn file format help ? You can find here the complete headache details of the format.
Liviu
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3
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Swiss bye in PGN
Not that it is of earth-shattering importance, but how is a Swiss bye entered in the Result header by default? 1-0? +? +-? +--? Is it different from a forfeit? (The latter can be additionally indicated by the "termination" tag, but I never saw it…
Hauke Reddmann
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Can one use alternative identifiers (from languages other than English) for chesspieces in PGN?
I came across this in the PGN standard on this site, section 17, for alternative piece identifiers (emphasis mine):
English language piece names are used to define the letter set for identifying chesspieces in PGN movetext. However, authors of…
Myungjin Hyun
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