SCID vs PC

Hi! I'm trying to use pgn2scid windows version to download and merge TWICS files to my SCID vs PC base. The files are downloaded merged and the Scid vs PC base created with the name: p2s_20-06-26_17-50-07.si4. After that it freezes and it doesn't merge the created base with my existing base TWIC.si4. No error messages, just freezing. 

Not sure if this will help as I don't use pgn2scid to merge databases. I just have both files open in SCID, then hold and drag the TWIC database tab to the Main database tab, it then copies the games across (I leave the TWIC database as PGN, and have my Main database as si4). 

That's not a good sign when a program freezes with no error message. It often takes some detective work to discover the problem.

The advantage of using the pgn2scid conversion utility is that it's more reliable for large pgn files. The only problem is that the Help file doesn't define "large". However, I suspect that TWIC update files aren't large enough to cause problems, so Salterton's suggestion seems good to me.

Bear in mind that some of the TWIC updates contain Chess960 games, and Scid vs. PC can't handle Chess960 games. You'll get error messages during conversion or importing of the Chess960 games, but the GUI should accept the games. The problem is that the Chess960 games are broken when viewing them with the GUI.

Regarding the freezing issue - You didn't say exactly how you merged the pgn files before using the pgn2scid utility. Did you try opening the merged pgn file with Scid vs. PC to ensure that the merged pgn file doesn't have any problems?

P.S. - I hesitated to make this post, as you're on Windows, and I'm on Linux now. And I'm really trying to minimize the number of times I have to boot back into Windows to help with troubleshooting problems. :-)

Based on your avatar, I'm not so sure your YouTube channel would exactly be "heart healthy"...

Any progress on your problem? I needed to set up a big database for my Linux Scid vs. PC program, so I decided to install Caissabase plus the latest TWIC updates, similar to what you're doing. (It takes too much time; I don't think I'm going to update very often, lol.)

I don't really know what could be causing your freezing problem, but I might have a couple of suggestions. First, I wouldn't install Scid vs. PC in the default "Program Files" folder. Instead, I'd create a different folder and install it in that new folder. (This avoids any potential file permissions problems.) Second, I would run the pgnscid.exe program from the "bin" folder where it's located. (Run in a command prompt, but point the command prompt path to the bin folder.) It's easier just to place your pgn files into the bin folder before running pgnscid.exe.

I downloaded the 2019-09-08 version of Caissabase and added TWIC files 1296 through 1337. I merged the TWIC files together in Linux using the Linux cat command, but I guess I also could have done it in Windows (DOS) using the type command.

(To use the type command, you first have to open up a DOS command line, then change the DOS command line path to point to the group of PGN files to be merged. Then, you type a DOS command like:

type *.pgn > Total.txt

then hit the enter key. After the merging is finished, rename the "Total.txt" back to "Total.pgn", and you're done.)

I deleted 168 Chess960 games from the merged TWIC pgn file (I used the fenRemove command from Norm Pollock's 40H-PGN Tools utility), and I also had to delete eight broken TWIC games. Additionally, there were two games with illegal castling, but I didn't remove those because they weren't actually broken.

Thanks all. I moved all pgn2scid files to the bin file, now it works.

Is there anyone who could take me through the steps in getting dark theme to work in scidvspc for linux?

Well, I use Scid vs. PC in Linux, but I've never messed with themes at all. I hope there's someone else around who can help you.

In August I did play some games in this website chess.com and now, as I used to do, I go to chess.com archive and try to import the games by downloading them in PGN but I can't import none of them individually or in a single PGN file, getting this message "Error opening PGN file". Someone else is having this problem?

Works fine here. Self compiled SCID vs PC under Manjaro Linux 64-bit. It also works with the 64-bit windows version..

I never had a problem opening PGN before... I am with Windows 10, 64 bits Scid vs. PC.

Did you used to be able to open PGN files with Scid vs. PC, or is this the first time you've tried it with this GUI? Have you done anything differently lately, like a Windows update or new version of Scid vs. PC? Idk, see if you can open the PGN with a text editor or another Chess GUI. Which version of Scid vs. PC?

Hello, I am very experienced with Scid vs. PC. I remember the first time I used a chess program on a computer screen and it was something like 1985. I am doing the translation of the menus to Portuguese and know the Scid vs. PC very well. Using the most recent version 4.21 of it in Windows 10 Pro, version 2004, installed 16-06-2020. I am using "Tools → Import PGN file" and keep getting the same error message "Error opening PGN file.". The PGN file opens perfectly with the classic text editor that comes with windows. See here a file example. I am not an expert in PGN syntax to know if there is some error in the file or not:

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2020.08.22"]
[Round "-"]
[White "JogoReal"]
[Black "norbieetorbi"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2015"]
[BlackElo "2067"]
[TimeControl "180+2"]
[EndTime "4:45:35 PDT"]
[Termination "Empate por repetição"]

1. e4 c5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3 e6 4. g3 Nf6 5. Bg2 d6 6. Nge2 Be7 7. O-O Bd7 8. h3
O-O 9. d3 Nd4 10. Be3 e5 11. f4 Nh5 12. Qd2 a6 13. f5 b5 14. g4 b4 15. gxh5 bxc3
16. bxc3 Nxe2+ 17. Qxe2 Bg5 18. Kh2 Rb8 19. Rab1 Qf6 20. Bf3 h6 21. Rb3 Rxb3 22.
axb3 Rb8 23. Rb1 a5 24. Qd2 Bxe3 25. Qxe3 Qh4 26. Rg1 Kf8 27. Rb1 f6 28. d4 Qg5
29. Qxg5 hxg5 30. d5 Bc8 31. Kg2 Ba6 32. Be2 Ke7 33. Kf2 Kd7 34. Ke3 Kc7 35. Kd2
Bc8 36. Kc2 Bd7 37. Ra1 Kb6 38. Bd1 Rh8 39. Kd2 Be8 40. b4 axb4 41. cxb4 cxb4
42. Ra8 Kb7 43. Rd8 Kc7 44. Ra8 Kb7 45. Rd8 Kc7 46. Ra8 Kb7 1/2-1/2

Just tested it with a different PGN file from PGN Mentor <https://www.pgnmentor.com/files.html>; and bad... Scid vs. PC don't open it either...

Now maybe if I uninstall Scid vs. PC and install it again?

Does it work if you remove the [Termination "blah-blah"] line?

The pgn loads OK to me, but it might have something to do with the nonstandard UTF-8 chars in this line.

Problem solved. It has nothing to do with Scid vs. PC or with the PGN files. Its a problem in my installation of Windows 10 Pro. My Windows has a duplicated downloads folder. Even if I trash one of them it produces another one to get two again. Both are in the same folder with the same name apparently but probably one has name in Portuguese and another in English in the system. I moved the PGN file from the download folder to the desktop and it opened with no issues. Files in the twin download folders open normally but I was not just opening the PGN (it opened in the text editor) I was inserting it into a Scid format database, so doing a file conversion probably.

We can just blame Microsoft - It's always fun to do that. :-)

I was never a fan of Windows. It still is not as smooth as the Macintosh managing languages different from English and converting from one language to another. So I have a "Downloads" folder and a "Transferências" folder in the same computer, inside the same user's folder.

I have scid vs. pc 4.21 for linux, but chess960 positions are not recognized, I thought it was supposed to be? If not, what are the instructions for how to get it to work?

I can open a chess960 pgn but it fails at the castling move.