PGN to video: turn any chess game into an MP4
A PGN is a chess game written down as text. ChessDrama Studio reads it, plays it back at video pace with flags, arrows, zooms and sound on the moves you choose, and hands you a video. It runs in the browser and the editor is free.
Where to get a PGN
Every chess site and program exports PGN, short for Portable Game Notation. On Chess.com open a game and choose Share, then PGN. On Lichess use the FEN & PGN panel under the board. Tournament broadcasts, databases and engines all write the same format, and a PGN exported from a live game carries the clock times as well, which the studio can show beside the board.
You do not even need the file. Type a Chess.com or Lichess username into the import dialog and the studio lists that player's recent games, newest first, fetched by your browser from the sites' public APIs. Pick one and it opens.
From PGN to video in four steps
The whole route, from a game as text to a file you can post, takes a few minutes the first time and less after that.
- Import the game: paste the PGN, upload the file, or pick it from a Chess.com or Lichess account.
- Pick the line. Variations in the PGN stay as branches; choose the one the video follows, or jump to the critical position.
- Add effects to the moves that matter: a flag with your comment, an arrow for the threat, a zoom on the tactic, a shatter on the capture, a title card at the start.
- Press Record to capture the playback with your own screen recorder, or press Render for a cloud-rendered MP4 up to 4K.
What the PGN turns into
Each move animates on a board you have coloured and set with the pieces you like, at a pace you set in seconds per move. Captures can shatter, explode or spark. Flags, arrows, rings and spotlights draw where you put them. Title cards and captions come from the game's own headers if you want them to: event, round, the players and the result.
Tick Auto Recap on import and Stockfish, running in your browser, badges every move from book and best through inaccuracy and mistake to blunder, draws the engine's preferred move as an arrow on each error, tints each mistake and holds on it a beat, drives a live evaluation bar, and topples the loser's king at the end. It is a finished recap before you have touched anything, and a good starting point to edit down.
Your work stays in the PGN
The studio keeps your effects, colours and timings inside the game's own comments. A project is still an ordinary PGN that any other program can open, so nothing you make is locked inside this app, and a project saved to your account is simply that file.
PGN to GIF, or PGN to MP4?
Plenty of small tools turn a PGN into an animated GIF. A GIF is silent, limited to 256 colours, and large for its length, and TikTok, YouTube and Instagram want a video file. An MP4 carries sound, voice-over and captions, runs at 60 frames a second and up to 4K, and uploads anywhere. If you only need a loop for a forum post, a GIF is fine; for anything you want people to watch, make the MP4.
Free and Pro
The editor, the engine and the playback are free: record the playback with OBS, QuickTime or any screen recorder and you have your video, with a small "Made with ChessDrama.studio" line beside the board. Pro, 5 US dollars a month, renders the MP4 on our servers with sound, in 16:9, 1:1, 4:5 or 9:16, takes voice-over clips and the robot voice, and drops the watermark.
Questions
- Does it handle a PGN with variations?
- Yes. Variations become branches in the move tree. A branch picker lets you step down any of them, and you choose which line the video follows.
- Can I start from a position instead of move one?
- Yes. A PGN with a FEN header opens at that position, and the studio's Set up position panel lets you place the pieces by hand and then play the moves.
- How long can the video be?
- A cloud render runs up to ten minutes. A recording you make yourself is as long as your recorder allows.
- Is my PGN uploaded anywhere?
- A pasted PGN is handled in your browser. It reaches our servers only when you save the project to your account or ask for a cloud render. Games imported from Chess.com or Lichess are fetched by your browser from those sites directly.