They are automatically kept in an archive.
No. They have been talking about doing that for years but it hasn't happened yet.
Fairly sure that the most popular chess programme allows you to enter your games and stores them in some kind of database.
I download them daily and use my local chess UI/database program (chessx) to append them to a database file that I've creatively named "Xanitrep chess.com games".
I also create similar database files for the games in each chess book that I work through.
A little investigation at the command line shows that these "databases" are literally just all of the individual pgn files concatenated together. It seems as though it can optionally build separate index files for large databases for more efficient access.
They have been adding more functionality to the archive in the last year. You can search now by result (win, win by time, win by resignation, checkmate, abandonment, etc.), opponent, opponent title, opening, date range, etc.
I don't think many people will take the time to add in games by hand.
Making use of what is already archived seems much more important.
I use Arena + a version of stockfish that I downloaded when I want the game analyzed beyond depth 18.
It is CPU intensive though, some people have reported slow performance on their computer while this is running but it's possible to adjust settings in order to get it right
Also, Arena is not mandatory, many other UCI software let you use the engine of your choice so the results are the same everywhere
No. They have been talking about doing that for years but it hasn't happened yet.
Good to know - thank you. Curious - how do you manage your files?
Fairly sure that the most popular chess programme allows you to enter your games and stores them in some kind of database.
Does this concern you? Being locked into one platform? If you don't want to subscribe to chess.com any longer you lose your data...
I download them daily and use my local chess UI/database program (chessx) to append them to a database file that I've creatively named "Xanitrep chess.com games".
I also create similar database files for the games in each chess book that I work through.
A little investigation at the command line shows that these "databases" are literally just all of the individual pgn files concatenated together. It seems as though it can optionally build separate index files for large databases for more efficient access.
Thanks for sharing. How often do you refer to ChessX to look back at old games and puzzles? To study or analyze...
They have been adding more functionality to the archive in the last year. You can search now by result (win, win by time, win by resignation, checkmate, abandonment, etc.), opponent, opponent title, opening, date range, etc.
I don't think many people will take the time to add in games by hand.
Making use of what is already archived seems much more important.
Makes sense. Do you play on other platforms? Like lichess... I suspect you are keeping multiple game archives on each platform then?
I use Arena + a version of stockfish that I downloaded when I want the game analyzed beyond depth 18.
It is CPU intensive though, some people have reported slow performance on their computer while this is running but it's possible to adjust settings in order to get it right
Also, Arena is not mandatory, many other UCI software let you use the engine of your choice so the results are the same everywhere
I'd never heard of Arena+ before - thanks for sharing. Powerful engine... no chance of web or mobile use here. Do you import your puzzles into it as well - use it as a personal database... or just analysis?
i use "SCID v PC" http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/
It is basically a free version of Chessbase (might be missing some bells and whistles, but I have not noticed).
You can create databases and load your games in any way you want, eg rapid, classical, black, white, openings etc etc.
I also downloaded a 2.8million database of master games that I put in a reference DB.
You can set up positions and search for current position and see what others have played.
You can play AI, create tactics from games, endless possibilities.
AND, one of my favourite parts, it is 100% functional offline!
I put mine together in a text editor and then save them to my hard drive. The moves are just the moves, but the headers are mostly from chessgames dot com, although they're often missing the Elo numbers, and so I add those in from chess dot com. It's just copying and pasting. If it's an annotated PGN, then I go to lichess dot org, import it, and then download the raw PGN, to remove the annotations. It's not the kind of thing where I'll end up with a ton of them, but it feels sort of like collecting stamps.
Thanks for sharing. How often do you refer to ChessX to look back at old games and puzzles? To study or analyze...
I look at old games occasionally, but I use it mostly to analyze games that I've just played when I've run out of chess.com analyses for the day and as a virtual chessboard when reading chess books. It also has an "opening tree" feature similar to Opening Explorer that I sometimes use.
I have a folder full of them on my macbook, for example every Fide World Champion match, and the greatest games ever played etc. I love PGNs
I really dig the PGNs too - which is why I posed the question... figuring out how everyone uses theirs.
So you just organize them in folders like files - no special organizational app to access them?
i use "SCID v PC" http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/
You can create databases and load your games in any way you want, eg rapid, classical, black, white, openings etc etc.
How do you access the games, openings, etc... that you are looking for? How does it organize them?
I put mine together in a text editor and then save them to my hard drive. The moves are just the moves, but the headers are mostly from chessgames dot com, although they're often missing the Elo numbers, and so I add those in from chess dot com. It's just copying and pasting. If it's an annotated PGN, then I go to lichess dot org, import it, and then download the raw PGN, to remove the annotations. It's not the kind of thing where I'll end up with a ton of them, but it feels sort of like collecting stamps.
It does sort of feel like collecting stamps!
I've been doing something similar in that I cannot annotate my games on iOS on chess.com - so I move the png to lichees to annotate and then save.
Any tips on wading through and finding the right pgn in a sea of text files?
Thanks for sharing. How often do you refer to ChessX to look back at old games and puzzles? To study or analyze...
I look at old games occasionally, but I use it mostly to analyze games that I've just played when I've run out of chess.com analyses for the day and as a virtual chessboard when reading chess books. It also has an "opening tree" feature similar to Opening Explorer that I sometimes use.
How often do you refer back to the virtual chess boards you set up from the books you are reading... I've been playing with this...
Is there some software you import them to or do you just download them to a folder on your computer and import them to chess.com for analysis at a later time?