annotating

Sorry I can't seem to figure this one out on my own.  How do you annotate and post a game?  Or is that for premium members only?

you need to click on the little mini board at the top of the reply window, then go to game or sequence and insert your game PGN.

Here's a screenie to help you out:

Thanks!  Is that also where I annotate it?

yes it will take to a page when you can...

Thanks a mil!

Alternatively, if you have a program like fritz or chessbase, you can annotate it there and then copy / paste as pgn - all information, notes included, will end up there.

Cheers,

Andrea

How about Chessmaster 10th edition?  Ah, no.  It uses CMG not PGN.

Can you edit the annotations after posting?

No. It's rather annoying -- if you're like me and A) always make some errors and typos at first and B) are fastidious about it and want to go back and clean up your mistakes then:

You end up pulling your hair out! Deleting your post, and re-cut-n'-pasting your PGN into a new message so as to edit it... then you find another small error... so you do it again... then half the day is gone and you're wondering why the fates chose you to be so obsessive/crazy.   It's a good idea to use an outside PGN editor and then copy your PGN into the chess.com displayer if you like to get your annotations right.

I use ChessDB... there's a bit of a learning curve with the program though... it's a database program ... but it has a decent comment editor once you learn how to use it. I'm not recommending it unless you want to take the time to learn a big database program.  Fritz can be used as well. But I've lost patience with Fritz for a variety of reasons. No doubt Arena can be used as well. But Arena is quirky as hell too I think (it is improving with every release though).

Is there a simple solid easy to use and robust PGN editor out there, available as freeware? It seems like it would be the easiest program in the world to create, but I can't find it.

Is there a simple solid easy to use and robust PGN editor out there, available as freeware? It seems like it would be the easiest program in the world to create, but I can't find it.

Good question.  If you find one let me know.  I'm interested too!

Something I don't have to pay for, preferably.

Arena 1.99 Beta 5 works fine and can be used for PGN editing. I use it with the Toga engine.

What is the Toga eng!ine?  You mean Arena is not a stand-alone program?  I'll google it and download it.  Thanks!

I have a question related to this. Is there a way that you can annotate it and post it somewhere else like some blog or is this annotate function limited just to the forum postings? Thanks a bunch.

You can annotate in scid, which is a free chess database program.

Edit: I just saw that someone had mentioned ChessDB, which is based off an earlier version of scid. Both are decent, free programs.

by the_menace: if you annotate it here you can copy it and paste it elsewhere. If you annotate in Arena or some other program, you can also copy and paste. However, when you paste it will just be the PGN file, i.e., it will not include the chessboard.

Immanuel: (what a great Biblical name!) Arena is just the GUI. You have to add an engine. Toga is very good but there are many others. Go to this site where you can download many engines:

http://www.sdchess.ru/Engines_UCI_top.htm

Also note that Chessmaster will output in PGN format also, including annotation.

Good luck.

Oh, thanks.  I will do the download.  I thought Chessmaster used CMG?  Oh, yes, about the name: my parents are very "Bibilical" people!

Um, how do you match the GUI with the engine?  Do you put them in the same folder or something?  I'm new to this sort of thing.

Immanuel: Download Arena first into a folder named Arena. Notice that there are many subfolders after your download, including one named "Engines". Download your engine and put it into that folder. Start Arena, go to the Engines Menu>Install New Engine and follow the instructions. Should work after that.

Chessmaster does use CMG files but can also output/save in PGN format.