Notation Converter

Yes. The chess.lc notation converter is 100% free, runs entirely in your browser, and requires no install, no signup, no account, and no credit card. There are no usage caps, no file-size limits, no premium tier, and no rate limits — paste a PGN of any length and the cleaned move list appears instantly. Your PGN never leaves your device because the cleaning runs in JavaScript right in the browser.

Five things, each toggleable or automatic: (1) curly-brace comments like {best move} or {[%eval 0.42]}; (2) semicolon line comments; (3) parenthesised variations and sub-variations of any depth; (4) NAGs (Numeric Annotation Glyphs) like $1, $14, $19; and (5) header tags in square brackets like [Event "..."], [White "..."], and inline annotations like [%clk 0:05:23] and [%emt 12]. The output is a clean, compact move list ready to paste into an engine, a blog post, or a study.

PGN stands for Portable Game Notation. It is the de facto standard text format for storing chess games, designed by Steven J. Edwards in 1994. A PGN file has two parts: a header tag pair section in square brackets (Event, Site, Date, Round, White, Black, Result, etc.) followed by the move text in Standard Algebraic Notation. PGN can also carry comments in curly braces, variations in parentheses, and NAGs as $-prefixed numbers. Every modern chess platform — Chess.com, Lichess, chess.rodeo, Chessbase — imports and exports PGN.

SAN (Standard Algebraic Notation) is the compact form used in books, PGNs, and online play: it omits the source square unless ambiguity demands it (Nf3, Bxf7+, O-O, e4). LAN (Long Algebraic Notation) always writes the source square: Ng1-f3, Bf1xf7+, Pe2-e4. SAN is what the chess.lc converter outputs; LAN is mostly used by engines internally (UCI uses a stripped LAN variant like g1f3, e2e4) and in older chess literature. Most PGN exporters produce SAN by default.

These are move-quality annotations, the most common subset of chess notation symbols: '!' = a good move, '!!' = brilliant, '?' = a mistake, '??' = a blunder, '!?' = an interesting move worth considering, '?!' = a dubious move. They are subjective — different annotators apply them differently — and are not strictly machine-readable, which is why engines export them as NAGs ($1 through $9) instead. The chess.lc cleaner strips NAGs but keeps the inline '!' and '?' suffix-symbols by default because they live as part of the move token.

Yes — that is the most common use case. Chess.com and Lichess both export PGNs with embedded {[%clk 0:05:23]} clock annotations on every move, plus engine evaluations as {[%eval +0.42]} when you analyse the game, plus the full header. Pasting that PGN here and clicking 'Strip Comments' removes all the clock/eval brackets, leaving a clean move list you can post to a blog, share in a Discord, or import into a study tool. The cleaner also handles chess.rodeo, ChessBase, SCID, and any other PGN exporter that follows the spec.

Yes. The PGN input, options panel, output box, and notation reference table are all fully responsive. The notation reference scrolls horizontally on narrow screens to keep all three columns readable, and the textarea expands to fit the available width. There are no browser plugins, no app install, and no minimum screen size. Works on iOS Safari, Android Chrome, and any modern desktop browser.

Once you have a clean PGN from this tool, you can paste it into chess.rodeo for free unlimited Stockfish analysis — no signup, no daily cap, no premium tier, and no paywall on engine depth, multi-PV lines, or game length. chess.rodeo also supports import from any platform's PGN export, including the {[%clk]} clock-annotated PGNs that Chess.com and Lichess produce, so the cleaning step here is optional but useful if you want a tidy text record of the moves alongside the engine review.