Frequently Asked Questions
What is the ChessFlash PGN Viewer?
It is a tool to publish chess games using PGN files in websites or blogs so others can play over them.
What is PGN?
PGN stands for Portable Game Notation and is a standard way to record and store a chess game. Online chess servers (like ICC and FICS) can send you your games in pgn format and chess database software can read and export to PGN files.
What is the purpose of the ChessFlash website and ChessFlash PGN Viewer?
Our mission is to have fun and allow you to publish chess games including commentary and variations on your web site, your blog or here at ChessFlash.
How do I use the ChessFlash PGN Viewer to view a game?
Take a look at this simple example and tutorial. For an advanced example with two boards and tabbed variations see this example and tutorial.
How much does it cost?
All of our standard services are currently available at no cost to you. Free.
Where can I publish to using the ChessFlash PGN Viewer?
You can publish your games here, at ChessFlash.com. You can publish at any web site that allows you to use full html including the embed and object tags with javascript and flash.
Blogger is our primary external target. We have published successfully from Blogger both to blogspot.com (see here) and to a website outside blogspot (see here).
I have published an example to LiveJournal (see http://glennwilson.livejournal.com/1336.html).
WordPress hosted blogs do not currently work with ChessFlash, but, if you have your own WordPress site you can use ChessFlash (use http://chessflash.com/chessflash.html leave and omit the div tags) or you may want to try the WP-ChessFlash plugin here written by Pepijn van Erp.
Can I see examples of the effect of different publishing options?
Yes, you can visit our Gallery.
How do I get started?
For a quick start go to http://chessflash.com/chessflash.html. To see our previous publishing method, see Getting Started Publishing Chess Games (currently still supported but it may be disabled in the future).
What if I have questions or problems making it work?
Please visit our support forum.
What if ChessFlash is having problems understanding my PGN file?
Please see this blog entry that describes common problems and how to correct them.
What are your Terms of service?
Our Terms of Service are at http://ChessFlash.com/tos/.
How can I contact you?
You can email me at glenn.wilson [at] gmail [dot] com.
