How do I open PGN files?

I'm guessing that the PGN files are a way of downloading and saving a record of individual games.  What does PGN stand for, and what software do I need to view them?

PGN = Portable Game Notation. I open my PGN files with WordPad program where I can see the game in standard notation form. You can also open up the games in some type of chess program such as WinBoard, ChessBase, or some other chess program. You might check out our downloads section at http://www.chess.com/downloads to see if there are any programs there which will open PGN files.

I have PGN files open with the text editor MS Notepad.  I use the free utility ChessPad to play through games, add comments or alternative lines, and give back the PGN record which I edit/combine/save with Notepad.

I like turtulz

i just wondering how to open .pgn files... now, i know,,, :)

this thread was very helpful

thanks!

Something else that may be useful - a very easy way to view, edit & annotate a game once you've obtained the PGN file for it. Open the PGN viewer on this site, Game Editor & paste in the PGN.

It's not difficult using the viewer & there's more information here..

http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/148/2/how-do-i-use-the-analysis-board--editor

Game Editor can be found on the More tab/pop-up menu!

Is it possible to finish a game that ended on time then pasting the PGN file somewhere so both parties can continue the game?

fartinghorse, that's not possible in the way I think you mean but you could post a diagram of the game on a personal blog you created & invite your opponent to post their moves on it. You'd then need to update the diagram every move or so - a little tedious but it's the only way I know.

Oh, you'd think that would be quite easy to do..oh well thanks anyway.

ChessBase Reader 2013. The new ChessBase Reader conveniently displays all installed databases and training titles - with a modern menu ribbon look. With the free ChessBase reader, you can open all standard file formats (.cbh, .cbf, .pgn), play through games on a stunningly rendered board, watch ChessBase training videos and much more. Download it for free now!  Free download available here.

I know I can do this with win7 and fritz, hit ctrl and v  to copy  pgn files from internet game on line  into fritz  .what would be the best chess program to do the same with a Mac computer.I dont think fritz will work with a mac.

Sorry to bump, but if Stockfish can do the same, I'm not sure how. I'm running Windows 7 and all I seem to have are the executables. Sure, I can dump the movelist to notepad or wordpad as discussed above, but how do I get it to tell me what I should have done?

Stockfish is an engine and engines are only cocerned with positions. You will need a GUI to interface with the engine.

when I click on download to download my games nothing seems to happen.  Any helpful suggestions?  Thank you.

It is currently broken in v3 and at least a couple of bug reports have been submitted.  You can always copy the PGN text out of the pop-up window.

When i open in notepad or wordpad the moves are like 1.Nf3 {[%clk 0:29:16]} 

So wordpad isnt working for me. %clk makes it look like an encoding problem

That is a comment and is the clock time after the move. When you export the game(s) you can uncheck the option to include that.

Thanks for googling this old thread and reviving it.

Download the great freeware program Lucas Chess.  You can download pgns and even analyze each move with world computer champ Stockfish 8 if you want.

It's here: https://lucaschess.pythonanywhere.com/

There's not a lot of documentation on it, but it's not hard to master.  A decent intro is here:

http://devtome.com/doku.php?id=lucas_chess