PGN stands for Portable Game Notation. It is a text format for storing chess games, and it is the closest thing the chess world has to a universal file type.

Headers

A PGN game starts with tag pairs in square brackets: Event, Site, Date, White, Black, Result, WhiteElo, BlackElo, TimeControl. These headers make the file searchable. A library without headers is just a list of moves.

Moves

The moves use standard algebraic notation: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5. Comments can be added in curly braces, and variations in parentheses. Most tools ignore the comments when replaying the game but keep them when exporting.

Multiple games

A single PGN file can contain many games. Each new [Event] tag starts a new game. This is how archives and tournament files work. ChessUrge's import splits a multi-game PGN into separate library entries and skips duplicates.

Why export matters

Your games should not be trapped in one platform. Export them as PGN and you can open them in ChessBase, Arena, Lichess studies or any other tool. A permanent library is only permanent if you can take it with you.

ChessUrge stores played games without limit and uploaded games within your quota. The export button downloads every game in your library as a PGN file.

Import or export from the game library.

Try it on a real game

See the whole game, not just the blunder.

Choose a review depth, see the maximum cost, and get move-by-move accuracy with blunder, mistake and inaccuracy markers.

Open the library