What is a PGN file?
PGN stands for Portable Game Notation, a plain-text format for recording chess games: the moves and the facts about the game. People can read it, and most chess software supports it. Steven J. Edwards devised it in 1993, and it was first popularized and specified on the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.chess. A PGN file ends in .pgn and holds any number of games, one after another.
Each game opens with tag pairs in square brackets, such as [White "Paul Morphy"]. Seven of them make up the Seven Tag Roster, which the standard requires of every game kept in an archive: Event, Site, Date, Round, White, Black and Result. A question mark stands for anything unknown, as in the date 1858.??.??. Sites and programs add more tags, such as the players' ratings (WhiteElo and BlackElo), the opening's ECO code and the time control.
The moves follow in standard algebraic notation and end with the result: 1-0, 0-1, 1/2-1/2, or * for a game that is unfinished or whose result is unknown. Text in braces is a comment on the move before it. A line in parentheses is a variation, a move that could have been played instead of the one just before it. Codes such as $1 and $2 are annotation symbols: $1 means the same as writing ! after the move, and $2 the same as ?. Lichess and Chess.com can also save each player's clock time in a comment, written [%clk 0:02:59].
The sample game in the viewer, written the way a PGN file stores it:
[Event "?"]
[Site "Paris"]
[Date "1858.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Paul Morphy"]
[Black "Duke Karl / Count Isouard"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C41"]
[Opening "Philidor Defense"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Bg4 4. dxe5 Bxf3 5. Qxf3 dxe5 6. Bc4 Nf6
7. Qb3 Qe7 8. Nc3 c6 9. Bg5 b5 10. Nxb5 {Morphy gives up a knight for a
pawn.} cxb5 11. Bxb5+ Nbd7 12. O-O-O Rd8 (12... O-O-O 13. Ba6+ Kc7
14. Qb7#) 13. Rxd7 Rxd7 14. Rd1 Qe6 15. Bxd7+ Nxd7 (15... Kd8 16. Qb8+
Ke7 17. Qe8#) 16. Qb8+ $1 {Morphy gives up his queen as well. Nxb8 is
Black's only legal reply.} Nxb8 17. Rd8# 1-0How to use the PGN viewer
- Paste a PGN into the box and press View game, or press Open .pgn file to choose a file on your device. You can also drop a file onto the box.
- If the file holds more than one game, pick one from the Game list.
- Step through the moves with the arrow buttons, or with the left and right arrow keys on a keyboard. Click any move in the list to jump to it.
- A comment appears after the move it belongs to. A variation appears in smaller type under the move it replaces, and its moves can be clicked like any other.
- Flip the board to follow the game from Black's side. The names, ratings and clock times beside the board come from the game's tags and comments.
Frequently asked questions
Is the PGN viewer free, and is my file uploaded?
It is free and needs no account. Pasting or opening a PGN sends nothing anywhere: the viewer reads it in your browser. The moves leave the page only if you press Analyze this game, which carries them in the link it opens.
Can it open a PGN file with many games?
Yes. A PGN file can hold any number of games, and the viewer lists every game in the file by its players, result and date. Pick one from the Game list to replay it. Files of up to 2 MB open.
Does it show comments, variations and annotation symbols?
Yes. A comment appears after the move it is written on. Variations appear under the move they replace, in smaller type, and clicking a move in one shows that position. Annotation codes such as $1 and $4 are shown as the symbols ! and ??, and clock times saved in [%clk] comments appear beside the players' names.
How do I get the PGN of a game from Chess.com or Lichess?
On Chess.com, open the game, press the Share icon at the bottom of the Analysis tab, choose the PGN tab and press Download; your Game History page downloads several games at once. On Lichess, any game is available as a PGN at lichess.org/game/export/ followed by the game's ID, the first eight characters after lichess.org/ in the game's address.
What is the difference between PGN and FEN?
PGN records a whole game: its tags and every move. FEN describes a single position: where each piece stands, whose turn it is, castling rights, the en passant square and the move counters. A PGN can carry a FEN tag when a game starts from a set-up position, and the viewer then starts from that position.
Why does my PGN not open?
The viewer plays every move by the rules, from the start or from the game's FEN tag, and stops at the first one that is not legal in that position: a typo or a missing move is enough. It keeps the moves before that point and names the move that failed. Games of other variants, such as Chess960 and Crazyhouse, follow different rules and cannot be replayed here.
Set up a single position in the board editor, or time a game over the board with the chess clock.