Viewing a game is one of the most important features of the chess database program. You can view a game move by move forward or backward, you can go to the initial position or to the end of the game, jump to the next or previous branch or into a variant, etc.

Forward Move

Clicking the button under the chessboard will display the next move in the game. This option is automatically disabled when the end of the game is reached.

Backward Move

Clicking the button will reverse the order in which the moves are displayed. The screen with game notation will be scrolled in the reverse direction. Backward move will be automatically disabled when the initial position is reached.

Forward Moves automatically

After clicking the button , the program plays the game moves from the current position to the end of the game automatically until you click another button under the chessboard to stop this process or until the end of the game is reached.

Backward Moves automatically

After clicking the button , the program plays the moves of a game in the reverse direction automatically until you click another button under the chessboard to stop this process or until the initial position is reached.

Alternatively: you can replay a game using the next arrow keys and keyboard shortcuts:

The Alt key in combination with the right arrow key plays one move forward in the game while in combination with the left arrow key retracts one move. The same is true for F12 and F11 keys respectively.

The up arrow key makes 2 half-moves backward at a time.

The down arrow key makes 2 half-moves forward at a time.

Both Alt+End and Ctrl+End combinations jump to the end of the game.

Both Alt+Home and Ctrl+Home combinations jump to the initial position.

The Alt button in combination with the PageDown button jumps to the next move with variant or textual comment if any or to the end of the game.

The Alt button in combination with the PageUp button jumps to the previous move with a variant or textual comment if any or to the initial position.

The Alt key in combination with down and up arrow keys switches on/off the mode of automatical displaying moves forwards or backwards respectively.

The PageDown button jumps to the last move which is displayed in the current window.

The PageUp button jumps to the first move displayed in the current window.

When replaying games it is important to know how to choose between different alternatives. In the “Game editing board” window, any number of alternatives to every move may be entered. An alternative line may also contain different alternatives and text or symbol comments for every move.

The “alternatives” box is located in the top right-hand area of the “Game editing board” window. It contains the alternative lines in the game. Variation at the top of this window is the main line unless the “Last always” option in the Editor Status window is on. In this case, the last line in the list of alternatives represents the game’s main line. The highlighted variant is called the active variant. If you want to play another move from the list of alternatives, select this move from the box when a list of currently available alternatives is displayed.

To select from currently available alternatives:

Double-click the desired alternative line, or click the desired alternative and click the button ; or select the desired alternative and press the Enter key or SpaceBar to activate it.

Once you have seen all moves (or part of moves) in an alternative line and want to go back to the latest branch, you can play the game backward to that branch, or jump to that branch by clicking the button .

You can also use the mouse cursor to navigate the window with chess notation.

Click the button or double-click the current move to open a window called “Game editing board”. Here you can view textual, symbol, graphical, and multimedia annotations, and chess variants that are stored with the game. The program enables you to add commentary or chess variants to every move in the main line or in the alternative lines.