Article:		Checkmate XML
Subject:		XMl for chess
Date:		2004-08-29 16:09:25
From:		KymFarnik
As a Chess player of many years and an IT Professional the idea of a new (XML) text game format is not a good idea. Why you ask? PGN is both human and machine readable. It is *very* easy for a human to read and that is the reason it is so successful and no one has 'updated' the spec since '96. PGN uses SAN. SAN is the official way players record their moves in a tourney. PGN adds some headers and a terminator (*, 1-0, 0-1 1/2-1/2). PGN allows the insertion of comments {} and nested variations (). As a Chess player what more do you need? The problem with any XML format is the tagging and the fact that Chess players need a readable text format. The fact that the de-facto PGN standards has lived without change for so long is a huge indication of stability and usefulness. I have a database of 3.4million games (using the Scid product) and have loaded all collected games from PGN! PGN is good for Email Chess as it is easily paresed by tools and readable by the players at the same time. *If aint broken - dont 'fix' it* Regards, kym

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• XML for chess
  2004-08-29 16:14:35 KymFarnik [Reply]
  
  Oh... http://scid.sourceforge.net is a GPL tool to handle PGN (and is a great database for chess games).
  Also: WinBoard/Xboard http://www.tim-mann.org/xboard.html
  
  
  
  • XML for chess
    2004-09-01 16:06:09 oreilly@greggriffiths.org [Reply]
    
    I agree that PGN is a very good format for computer systems, it is not really suited for use with XML, although many apps - including mine - use XML formats for data transfer.

    
    XML is a common data standard, so converting PGN / whatever to an XML format will make it easier for non PGN gurus who are building applications for Chess to have a better grasp on the data file.

    
    One of the reasons I did not use PGN and opted for XML is that my Javascript based app can easily read an XML file, but any other format is a lot more complex.