PGN Viewer Updated

Our club's website has its own PGN Viewer - click here to look at it. That page doesn't have its own menu bar, because I am only an amateur web designer and I couldn't figure out how to have both the menu bar and the PGN Viewer on the same page.

Instructions for PGN Viewer

1. Paste your PGN Code (algebraic game notation) into the white dialogue box on the right-hand side of the board.
2. Use the controls at the bottom of the board to click through the moves or choose your preferred 'play' speed from the drop down list and press the 'Play' button.
3. Erm, that's it.

Upgraded Features

1. Check whether a position is checkmate by clicking the "mate?" button.
2. Check whether a position is a draw by clicking the "draw?" button.
3. Print the board diagram by clicking the "print" button and following your printer's normal instructions. Do not forget that you can usually also print to file, which means that a graphical image will be saved to your computer.
4. Tick the 'pawns' box and then press the "print" button if, for some reason, you only wish to print a diagram of the pawn structure shown on the board diagram.
5. Tick the 'drag&drop' box for a slightly different graphical effect for moving the pieces. Can anyone else discover any different use for this feature?
6. Tick the 'rotate board' box to put the black pieces on the bottom and the white pieces on the top. Watch the algebraic coordinates change as if by magic!
7. To set up a position without the PGN Code: Select your chosen graphical assistance from the 'candidate move style' drop down list and click the 'apply' button. Press the 'Setup Board' button to put the pawns and pieces back to their staring positions. Tick the 'allow recording' box, to allow yourself to move the pieces on the board by using the mouse rather than an existing PGN code. Press the "undo" button to retract moves made in this manner. Choose whether you want to copy a piece or a pawn, move a piece or a pawn or delete a piece or a pawn by selecting the relevant bullet tick box.
   
8. To generate a web page (which you could then link to from a blog or wherever you want), replace the text that says "header text" in the white dialogue box at the bottom with the title of the game and click either the "Make Gamelink" or the "Make Puzzlelink" button as required. A new window will open. Click on the long link at the bottom of that page. A new window will open. The URL (web address) of the newest window is the web address of the page you have generated. Use this feature to share your games on the blog by linking to the web address you have generated!
   
9. Do not fiddle around with the text in the two boxes which are to the right of the acronym "SAN", which stands for "standard algebraic notation". This tells the PGN Viewer how to read the PGN code. If you do accidentally change these texts, refresh the web page and everything will return to normal.
   
10. The "FEN" code box used the Forsyth-Edwards Notation, which can be used to record a board position. Having set up a board position, you can click the "Get" button to generate the FEN code for that particular position, which can then be copied from the FEN code box. Alternatively, you can paste your own FEN code into the box and click the "Apply" button to create that board position. Clicking the "List" button opens a new window with the FEN code in use.
    
11. Regarding the dialogue box at the top, next to the text "URL", I'm sorry I've never figured out how to parse from another URL using our PGN Viewer. Any questions? I won't know the answers if they are not explained above but you might find them on the help page of the person who wrote the Javascript which makes the PGN Viewer. You can donate to him via PayPal on the help page, which would be a nice thing to do, since he has made this clever piece of software free for all.

I have used our PGN Viewer and the sample game from that page to generate an animated version of Duncan Badham's 5th round game in the Portsmouth Major in 2001, to show off one of its features - click here to view it. Please note, you do not need any webspace of your own to use this feature. You can play through the game using the controls at the bottom of the board or you can click on any part of the game notation to take the PGN Viewer directly to that part of the game.

You can make the board larger by using Firefox 3 and pressing the 'Ctrl' & '+' buttons at the same time.