How to replay a chess game from a PGN
The PGN Player turns the text of a chess game into a board you can step through. Paste the PGN of a game you played, a game from a book or a website, or a study you exported, and replay it one move at a time. It is free and needs no account.
What is a PGN?
PGN (Portable Game Notation) is the plain-text format that chess sites and programs use to save games. It has two parts: tag pairs in square brackets, such as the players, the event, the date and the result, followed by the moves in standard algebraic notation, for example 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6. Chess.com, Lichess and most chess software can export a game as PGN, so you can bring in games from almost anywhere.
How to replay a game
- Copy the PGN from the site or program where the game is saved.
- Paste it into the PGN text box and press Load PGN. If the text cannot be read, you get a message and can fix it and try again.
- Use the controls under the board to go to the first move, one move back, play or pause, one move forward or the last move. Press play to let the game run by itself.
- Click any move in the move list to jump straight to that position.
What you see next to the board
The Game info panel lists the players with their ratings when the PGN includes them, the result and the remaining tag pairs such as the event and the date. The Moves panel shows every move with piece icons and keeps track of where you are in the game. Below the board, the current position is shown as a FEN with a copy button, which is handy when you want to continue the position in the free chess engine or share exactly one position with a friend.
Turn a game into a video
Press Create video to record the replay. The player runs through the game, records the board and gives you a video file to download. A progress percentage is shown while it records, so leave the page open until it finishes. The file format depends on what your browser supports.
Tips
- To study a mistake properly, copy the FEN at the critical move and analyse it with the engine instead of only reading the moves.
- Use Load another PGN to switch games without leaving the page.