PGN notation

A text format recording a whole game with its tags.

Also known as: Portable Game Notation, Chess game file format

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Meanings

Portable Game Notation records a complete chess game as plain text with a header of tagged fields — event, date, players, result — followed by the moves. It was designed in 1993 to be readable by both people and programs, and remains the format every chess database uses.

Officially standardisedVerified fact
Records a complete game as plain text, with a tagged header and the moves in algebraic notation.
Contexts: History
Historically documentedVerified fact
Was designed to be read by both people and software, which is why it is a text format rather than a binary one and why it has outlasted the programs it was written for.
Contexts: History

Visual description

Lines of bracketed tag names and quoted values followed by numbered pairs of moves in plain text.

Symmetry: none
Orientation: upright

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Historical originHigh confidence: High confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.

Sources

FIDE Laws of Chess, Appendix C: Algebraic Notation
Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) · retrieved 2026-08-02
The governing body's own handbook. Authoritative for the notation FIDE requires in competition — the piece letters, the capture and check marks, castling — and for nothing outside it. Annotation symbols expressing an opinion about a move are deliberately absent from the Laws and are not cited here.
Go (game)
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-22
Tertiary reference, cited for the conventional description of a mark, its usual name and where it is encountered. Where an issuing body defines the mark, that body is cited alongside and governs.
Algebraic notation (chess)
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-02
Tertiary reference. Cited for how a mark is written and read in ordinary practice, and for conventions no governing body issues. Never cited for a claim that a rule says something — the rulebooks below carry those.
Go rules and notation
Nihon Ki-in · retrieved 2026-08-23
The Japanese Go association, one of the bodies whose rules are in international use. Go has more than one rule set — Japanese, Chinese and AGA scoring differ — and records say where a claim is rule-set specific.

Last reviewed 2026-08-23

Part of

Board game and score notation

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Meanings

Officially standardisedVerified fact

Records a complete game as plain text, with a tagged header and the moves in algebraic notation.

Contexts: History

Historically documentedVerified fact

Was designed to be read by both people and software, which is why it is a text format rather than a binary one and why it has outlasted the programs it was written for.

Contexts: History

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Historical originHigh confidence: High confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.

Sources

FIDE Laws of Chess, Appendix C: Algebraic Notation
Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) · retrieved 2026-08-02
The governing body's own handbook. Authoritative for the notation FIDE requires in competition — the piece letters, the capture and check marks, castling — and for nothing outside it. Annotation symbols expressing an opinion about a move are deliberately absent from the Laws and are not cited here.
Go (game)
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-22
Tertiary reference, cited for the conventional description of a mark, its usual name and where it is encountered. Where an issuing body defines the mark, that body is cited alongside and governs.
Algebraic notation (chess)
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-02
Tertiary reference. Cited for how a mark is written and read in ordinary practice, and for conventions no governing body issues. Never cited for a claim that a rule says something — the rulebooks below carry those.
Go rules and notation
Nihon Ki-in · retrieved 2026-08-23
The Japanese Go association, one of the bodies whose rules are in international use. Go has more than one rule set — Japanese, Chinese and AGA scoring differ — and records say where a claim is rule-set specific.

Last reviewed 2026-08-23