PGN File Documentation

Overview

Feature Value
Format type Text
Extension .pgn
MIME Type application/x-chess-pgn
Primary use Chess games recording
Structure ASCII text
Encoding ANSI, ASCII or UTF-8
Tag pairs Metadata information about the game
Mandatory Tags Event, Site, Date, Round, White, Black, Result
Optional Tags WhiteElo, BlackElo, ECO, etc.
Game notation Standard algebraic notation (SAN)
Comments Enclosed in { }
Numeric Annotation Glyphs (NAGs) Standard symbols ($1, $2, etc.) for chess annotations
Recursive Variation (RVAR) Alternative lines enclosed in ( )
Support for Variants Limited; additional rules need to be described outside the PGN data
File combination Multiple games can be stored in one PGN file
Platform support Universal (any text editor or dedicated software)
Popularity High among chess enthusiasts and professionals
Compression Can be compressed with ZIP or other compression tools without losing data integrity
Searchability High (due to plain text format)
Accessibility Readable by humans and machines with proper interpretation of notation
Custom Tags Allowed for storing additional information, but must follow the general PGN syntax