Pragma Chess

Guide

The guide of Pragma Chess, as the application has it (Help ▸ Pragma Chess Guide, F1): every topic, from the first steps to playing online.

  1. Getting startedPragma Chess keeps your games in databases and lets you study them on the board with an engine, an opening book and your own notes.
  2. DatabasesA database is a .pdb file holding games.
  3. The games listThe list shows the games of the open database, one per row.
  4. The database treeLeft of the games list, the tree shows what the open database contains.
  5. The boardMove a piece by dragging it, or by clicking it and then its square.
  6. Moves and annotationsThe Moves panel lists the game on the board, with the pieces drawn as figurines.
  7. ExplainExplain shows on the board why the last move is good or bad.
  8. EnginesEngine ▸ Analysis (Ctrl+E) turns on and off the analysis of the position on the board.
  9. TrainingGame ▸ New Training… (Ctrl+Shift+T) starts a game against the engine.
  10. Playing onlineGame ▸ New Online Game… plays a game against a person on lichess.org or on the Free Internet Chess Server, freechess.org.
  11. Opening booksAn opening book is a Polyglot .bin file: the moves known in each position, each with a weight.
  12. Opening namesThe Engine panel names the opening the game is in, and the Opening Tree names where each move leads.
  13. Game sourcesA source brings your games from a website into the open database and keeps them up to date.
  14. TrashRight-click a game of the list and choose Move Game to Trash.
  15. Converting a PGN fileTools ▸ Convert ▸ PGN to Pragma Database… makes a new database of the games of a PGN file, however large: choose the PGN file and where the Database goes (the Databases folder, named after the file, unless you choose…
  16. ProjectsA project is what you are looking at: the database, the game and the move, the side the board is seen from, the engine, the panels and whether you are training.
  17. Chapters and paragraphsA project is a collection of chapters, as a study or a chess book is, and a chapter holds games one after the other, with text between their moves.
  18. SyncSync keeps your Pragma folder — databases and projects — the same on several computers, through a folder on a server.
  19. ExtensionsTools ▸ Manage Extensions… installs engines and databases with a click.
  20. UpdatesOnce a day, a little after it starts, Pragma Chess asks GitHub for the number of its latest version, and nothing else: no data about you or your computer is sent.
  21. LanguageOptions ▸ Switch Language chooses the language of the interface.
  22. Keyboard shortcutsMoving through a game.