Is it possible to get the game board from a match ID for a 1v1?

In the API docs, I can only find it for tourney matches and team matches.

Idk

No, it isn't. Strangely I can't remember anyone ever asking for that but it seems a natural enough item of data to want to obtain.

Like many things in using this site's API, you'll have to do it the long way round by iterating over the player's archive for the month in which the match started and obtain the game id by cross-referencing to the match_id within the particular PGN data?

Of course if the game is still in progress you'll need the endpoint for the list of current games instead. It's going to be a little untidy but doable.

Thanks, one quick question, how would I get the month in which the match was(and one of the players that played in it)? Don't see that in the API either

For the month, take this match as an example...

https://www.chess.com/club/matches/team-wales-cymru/1450231

From the match endpoint: https://api.chess.com/pub/match/1450231

"start_time":1672048446

I work in Python so I'd convert the utc integer as follows...

start = time.localtime(1672048446)

start.tm_year gives 2022
start.tm_mon gives 12

plug those values into the api url for a given player (say alfa3we on board 3) and you get...

https://api.chess.com/pub/player/alfa3we/games/2022/12

Then iterate over alfa3we's games for the month of December and you'll find two games (game_id 456112547 and 456112553) which correspond to the match_id you started from.

It's a bit messy because you have to start parsing the pgn string - for example..

"pgn":"[Event \"Friendly match Team Monaco vs Team Wales-Cymru - Board 3\"]\n[Site \"Chess.com\"]\n[Date \"2022.12.26\"]\n[Round \"-\"]\n[White \"denisjones\"]\n[Black \"Alfa3we\"]\n[Result \"0-1\"]\n[Match \"https://www.chess.com/club/matches/1450231\"].....

I spend most of my time processing match results and I don't usually delve into individual players' games but I hope that points you in the right direction?

* Other members here might be able to help with some advice on pgn parsers - that subject crops up from time to time.

Thanks for the reply, but the issue is that I want to get the PGN's of normal games, not club games, how would I do that?

Then I'm puzzled by the title you chose, especially this part: "the game board from a match ID"

What did you mean by 'from a match ID' if not obtaining a specific PGN by starting with a match ID?

And what you see in the API documentation is all there is - for finished games you have to start with a month's collection of game PGN's and then sift through it for what you want.

There's no facility for accessing a single game endpoint from its (web) game_id. As far as the API is concerned, there's no such thing as a game_id.

Are you using 'match' synonymously with 'game' by any chance? Some people do and it causes confusion when we have both games and (club) matches!

If you mean 'game' it's better to stick to that word or you'll confuse other members.

I mean game, thanks for the correction!

SOLVED (to find FEN, not PGN): found out about the unofficial API by looking in the network tab, and it contains the FEN info(https://www.chess.com/callback/live/game/{game_id}). Did mix up FEN and PGN earlier, sorry for the confusion, meant to say FEN

You do mix up your terms a little, don't you? It's important to be precise when discussing subjects like this or you'll never obtain the results you want.

On the subject of 'the unofficial API', I've never used it myself because as far as I know the site doesn't advertise it or provide documentation for it.

I remember another person here saying a couple of years ago that he was apprehensive about using that (non-approved?) facility because he thought the staff might close his account, so be careful!?

Help me out here, in what way is the FEN useful?

I've just been looking over the data for this...

https://www.chess.com/callback/live/game/71592096277

..and while it gives information on move times, game type etc., the FEN is merely the starting position, so how does that help you?

Anyone know how to decode this?

"moveList":"gv!Tiy5QltZRmC6EpxEScuRJblSZCJQGkA0Sjz9zemzsacsz........

I got too excited, didn't realize that  . I remember seeing a way to decode the moveList in another thread, I'll look at it

EDIT: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/move-list-format-when-viewing-my-game-via-callback has a python script to get the moves(though you would have to parse it into PGN or FEN), found a JS one as well, but it looks like you can also do what was said earlier in the thread, and get the user and the date, then use the official API to access the PGN(including FEN) with https://api.chess.com/pub/player/{user}/games/{year}/{month}/pgn

it is but you have to use the unofficial chess.com API. but this doesn't work while making apps as it blocks you from trying to get the info. so you have to access it manually. there might be another way but Idk https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/guide-unofficial-api-documentation

Yes, that looks as if it solves your problem but as one of the staff members points out because it's an unofficial form of API, the data may not be 'stable', by which I think they mean reliable?

A little like scraping data from webpages, it works fine until the site developers decide to change something!

It is a suboptimal situation, as de juro it is against chess.com terms of conditions to use "unofficial api endpoints"  but it is definitely stable (more stable than the public API), and staff recommends you to use it in private (not in public).

"... it is definitely stable (more stable than the public API" - how do you know?

"...staff recommends you to use it in private (not in public)" - ? do you mean don't reveal what source of data we're using?

Can't find anything about it being 100% against the TOS, plus there's a comment of a staff member stating it's allowed(from the link above)