FULL Guide to Inserting Games/Editing Your Position: Everything You Need to Know!
Howdy chess nerds! It's your community blogger again, Admiral_ChessBeard!
So, what are we talking about today? Openings? Gambits? Showcasing games as usual?
We are going a little different...
Blog Overview:
Introduction
What is Inserting/Editing Games
Ways to Load Your Game:
1. How to Load your position from FEN
2. How to Load your position from URL
3. How to Load your position from PGN
4. How to Load your position from FILE
5. How to Load your position from Setup Position
How you can Edit your Game: Setup Position, Moves, Details, and Theme
Your Final Game Masterpiece
Examples
Conclusion and Further Mentions
Introduction
I have seen many Chess.com users ask the question, "how do I add a game to my comment?" That's what I bring you now! A full guide about how to share a game from anywhere... your archive, library, from your favorite blogger ... anywhere and everywhere that will allow you!
Plus tips & tricks when adding your game!
What is Inserting/Editing Games?
Most of you may know about this already, inserting games/positions (or I like to call it the "game adder") is the system that Chess.com uses to share or showcase any sort of game or position that you want!
The whole concept is actually quite simple. It is an easy matter of copying/downloading/saving games that you want to share right the moment you need it or in the future!
You may have been able to find where you need to go to insert a game. First off, you need to go to a place (such as a forum) where you wish to share your game.
You can see here, the red "target locked on" indicator shows where you need to navigate. (NOTICE. For this blog I will be using the light UI to make images easier to read. It may look different from your view.)
All you need to do is click on "insert chess game or diagram"(the little chess board icon), and then you should see this on your screen:
Here is where things get a little difficult. You have the options to set up position, load from FEN, load from URL, load from PGN and load from file. What to do now?? How do you use them to share your games or positions? What one is the best?
Well, let's look into them, shall we?
Ways to Load Your Game
1. How to Load your position from FEN
The first option that we will look at is FEN. FEN is different from other options because it only shows a single position instead of an entire game. But still, how do you use it?
All you need to do is go to your archive, library, or find a game from another member. Then the easiest way is to head to the game analysis!
See the "Share"? That's where you need to go to get your game FEN!
After you click on your share, you head to where it says PGN. Then copy the FEN where this image indicates:
After you copied your game FEN, we can go to the game adder again!
You see what to do?
Simply paste your FEN and you have your position!
2. How to Load your position from URL
To add a game/position from a URL, you need to do the following:
Go to "share" again(it's good to share), and here's your url:
Copy it! Then paste it right about...
There looks like a good spot! Right where it says "Paste Game URL".
3. How to Load your position from PGN
Of all the options available to copy games, the PGN option is the best, as it keeps track of the entire game and all of the details, as well as being the easiest to access.
If you have stayed with us until this point in the blog, you should have learned where to find this screen:
Where it says PGN, just copy and paste everything you see! All the details and everything!
Next, all that's left to do is...
Paste your PGN, and you have your full game!
4. How to Load your position from FILE
How do you get your game file?
Download your game! If you are using PC(like me), it will appear on your desktop as long as you are using Windows XP or newer.
Save it wherever you please!
Now go back to our favorite game adder and click "browse" under "load from file".
Navigate to where you saved your downloaded game and upload it!
Now you have successfully uploaded your game file!
Another thing you can do is open your downloaded position manually and copy the PGN.
Copy and paste it into "Load PGN" and you have your game!
Although, what about...
5. How to Load your position from ... Setup Position?
Using this method for sharing a game is not very efficient. Mostly because the only way is to open your game in another browser or tab then manually make the moves to get the game you want to share. Believe me, using PGN is much better.
On the plus, Setup Position is great if you are looking to get creative and make your own personalized position or puzzle!
To Setup Position, all that is needed is for you to go to the top of the options:
Then drag and drop the pieces where you want! It's fun and easy!
Whatever style of copy and pasting, downloading or inserting works best for you and for your game/position(PGN should be the best), what you do next is click that green "Load" button. (For PGN it's "Add Games".)
After you "Load", Congrats! You now have your position loaded!
But ... is it ready to be "Inserted"...?
How you can Edit your Game
Using a PGN or your choice of loading games,
... you can now edit your position!
After inserting a game, you have four options; Setup Position, Moves, Details, and Theme.
If you are sharing a game instead of a diagram or puzzle, you should not want to edit the pieces positions. (That would mess the moves up!)
So, for now we will go to where it says "Moves". Just select a move that you want to edit!
Now, "right click" on a move, such as the move e4 in this position. You should see this:
Now, we have a large variety of options to edit the move! You can comment after (or before!) the moves (this is called "annotation"), you can give the move what you think it deserves (e4 deserves to be a brilliant move, so I will click on the "!!"), you can set focus, and much more!
If you wish, you can use your "right click" and drag on the board to make arrows. Or just "right click" once to highlight squares.
After you are done with your moves and you are happy with how they look, go to the details!
Here you can edit really anything... but if you are sharing an actual game don't edit this. For example, I put edited my rating and it says 3500 like it will in a few years, but I recommend not to. I can also add things like "Admiral_ChessBeard's blog" or the round in the game is "27". (My favorite number!)
If you are making up your own position, then yes, edit it as much as you like. Just... y'know, keep it original.
Anyhow, next(and last) is the theme!
Click the "Coordinates" to hide the coordinates, click "Flip Board" if you are playing as black or would like to be viewed as black, and click "Puzzle" if you want your viewer to solve the position themself!
For example, I unchecked "Coordinates" in the following position and clicked "Flip Board" because I was playing as black.
And now, the moment we were waiting for...
If you are confident with how your setup looks, then now it's time to...
And there we have it!
Your Final Game Masterpiece
After you clicked on "Insert", your comment/post should look like:
This means it worked and it uploaded! All you need to do now is post your comment, and you have your successfully shared position!
Examples
Now, with our knowledge we can share your favorite puzzle!
Or post your most recent game with an CM!
Or even customize your own completely random position for an April fools prank!
Possibilities are ENDLESS!
Conclusion and Further Mentions
Well folks, we have gotten to the end...
Thank you for your time and for reading this blog. I hope that you discovered something new about sharing/editing your games!
Next time you find a friend in need and needs help with editing/adding a game, make sure you send a link to this blog to help them!
If you have any suggestions/requests/comments/questions about this blog or future blogs, remember to comment down below!
If you have an issue, perhaps you spotted an error in this post, then send a private message to me @Admiral_ChessBeard!
Looking forward to seeing you next time! Keep playing chess and having fun!
Your friendly chess nerd,
Admiral_ChessBeard
