Settings¶
Choose Preferences from the main menu to change the looks and behavior of Chess PGN Master.
Language¶
Choose between the System default language or one from the list. If your preferred language is not in this list and you would like to volunteer to translate Chess PGN Master to your language then please contact the author via the Google Play e-mail link.
Autoplay¶
Autoplay time-delay¶
This is the time delay in seconds between the moves in autoplay mode.
Include variations¶
Check this option if you want to visit variations during autoplay mode.
Continue with next game in autoplay mode¶
If this option is selected then the autoplay will continue with the next game after the current game has finished.
Orientation¶
Initial orientation¶
The initial board orientation when loading a game can be influenced by choosing one of the following settings:
- Current user setting
Use the current orientation the user has set.
- Winner’s perspective
Orient the board so that the winner is shown at the bottom. I.e. if the winner is Black then the board will have the black pieces on the bottom of the board.
- Perspective of player to move
This is useful for chess puzzles: this setting will always put the color to move on the bottom of the board. I.e. if a chess puzzle starts with Black to move then black will be shown on the bottom of the board. In order to see which color is on the bottom enable showing of the coordinates and the side to move indicator.
My player names¶
This setting allows Chess PGN Master to flip the board to show the game from the players perspective.
Enter one player name per line. If the entered name matches part of one of the players of the current game then the board is flipped accordingly. This setting overrides the Initial orientation setting.
Gestures¶
Long press on buttons¶
Check this option if you want to be able to long press the previous/next buttons to move to the begin or the end of the current variation.
Gestures and actions¶
Select one of the volume buttons or a gesture and choose an action to execute when you do the gesture on the board:
No action
Next move
Previous move
Next game
Previous game
Go to the move before the current variation
End of the current variation
Flip board
5 half-moves forward
5 half-moves back
Show list of variations¶
In order to simplify the selection of variations enable this setting to show a list of variations instead of the move list if the next move has more than one variation. You can choose the main line automatically by simply going to the next move (by tapping on the right side of the board or using the right arrow).
Guess the move: include variations¶
Check this if you want to accept moves from variations and choose random variations in Guess the move mode.
Sound effects¶
Play a sound when a move is made.
E-Board¶
Select e-Board¶
If you have an electronic chessboard supported by PGN Master, you can select it from the drop-down list. For some e-boards there is more than one choice depending on the protocol to be used. See Electronic chess boards for more information regarding e-boards.
Note that Bluetooth connections require you to grant access to location information. This is a requirement for Android to allow scanning for Bluetooth devices.
Move delay (milliseconds)¶
Setting a delay improves move recognition if you slide pieces on the board but it delays move detection for some moves. Currently this setting is only recommended for the Chessnut Air e-Boards, where a move delay between 250ms and 400ms is suggested, depending how fast you normally slide pieces.
UCI engine¶
Set the chess engine used for Analysis, Playing against the engine and Blunder checking games. A detailed description of how to add and use a third party engine can be found at Using 3rd party engines.
Number of lines to analyze (MultiPV)¶
Set the number of evaluations the engine calculates. The separate lines are shown in the engine output and you can add each of them to the game. If you choose to evaluate more than one line keep in mind that the engine needs to calculate more and will have less power for calculation of the best line. This setting directly sets the multipv option of the current chess engine in use. It is not supported by every engine.
Engine options¶
Depending on the currently selected E-Board all the available engine options (except MultiPV) can be changed in this page. For a detailed description of some common engine options see Common chess engine options.
Time per move¶
Set the time per move when playing against the engine in seconds. You can probably keep a low setting here because all current engines are very strong and play at Grandmaster level even at low settings.
Theme¶
Select a light or dark theme, follow the system settings (Android 10 and above) or let the system automatically select the theme according to the current time (Android Pie and below).
Display options¶
In this page several display options are responsible for changing the display setup of the app.
Keep screen on¶
Disables the screen timout of your device as long as you are working with Chess PGN Master.
Hide notification bar¶
Hides the Android system notification area from the main window. It turns on immersive mode for devices running Android KitKat or later.
Arrows for variations¶
Display arrows if there is more than one move in the position. You can change the arrow colors in the Custom colors preferences.
Show coordinates¶
Show the coordinates on the board (a-h and 1-8). There are three options:
- No board coordinates
Do not show any coordinates.
- Show board coordinates
Show the coordinates on the board.
- Show board coordinates (save space)
Show the coordinates but save space by truncating the border on the top and right side of the board.
Highlight last move¶
The following options are available:
Display arrow as move indicator
Outline as move indicator
Colored background
No move indicator
Side to move indicator¶
The side to move indicator is a little white or black dot on the border of the board to indicate Whites or Blacks move. Show coordinates must be shown in order to display this move indicator.
Board size in landscape mode¶
The board size can be made smaller in landscape mode by changing the slider.
Board size in portrait mode¶
Also in portrait mode the board size can be adjusted using the slider.
Board on right side in landscape mode¶
Moves the board to the right side in landscape mode.
Show engine output¶
Shows or hides the Engine output. Also available in the Display.
Display arrows¶
If enabled arrows will be shown for engine results. If you select more than one line to analyze then up to four arrows will be displayed to show the different evaluated lines.
Show graphical engine evaluation display¶
Shows or hides the Graphical evaluation display.
Show annotations in-line¶
When this option is disabled the annotations (game comments) are shown in a separate area. This can be useful if you want to follow the game but hide the annotations.
Figurine Algebraic Notation¶
Option to use Figurine Algebraic Notation (icons for pieces) instead of K Q R B and N in the move list.
Show moves¶
Also available from the Display: shows or hides the moves text.
Show buttons¶
The same as in the Display.
Show material imbalance¶
Shows or hides the Material imbalance display. Can be shown or hidden in the Display, too.
Show opening explorer¶
Shows or hides the Opening explorer. Also available in the Display.
Set encoding (language)¶
Some PGN files (e.g. some Russian PGN files available on the Internet) are saved with a special encoding. In order to display annoatations of these files correctly you can set the character encoding of the current file (e.g. to Cyrillic). This setting will be used for every file you open if the encoding cannot be detected automatically.
Identify opening¶
Automatically identify the opening of the current game. The name of the opening is shown in front of the move list.
Font size¶
Changes the font size of the move list and annotations.
Pieces¶
Choose a piece set for the board display.
Color scheme¶
Choose a color scheme for the main display.
Custom colors¶
Here you can specify the
Dark square color of the board
Light square color of the board
Color of the last move indication
Arrow color of the main move (see also Arrows for variations)
Arrow color of variations (see also Arrows for variations)
Live games¶
Jump to current position¶
When enabled the current position jumps to the last move played when a live game is refreshed (i.e. the PGN file is re-downloaded from the Internet).
Live games refresh rate¶
The refresh rate in seconds a live URL is re-downloaded from the Internet.