Layout

This interactive viewer is made up of the areas described below.

  • Top bar — the row of buttons across the top: Help (marked with a question mark, which opens and closes this panel), Show Details / Hide Details (marked with an information “i”), Flip Board (marked with a flip icon), Annotations (marked with a memo icon, when the game carries comments or symbols) and Share (marked with a share icon). When several games are embedded in one block, a Game selector also appears here.
  • Game details — the panel listing tags such as the event, players, result, opening and rating. It is hidden or revealed with the Show Details / Hide Details button (see below).
  • Board — the chess board showing the current position.
  • Evaluation bar — the coloured bar beneath the board (see below).
  • Controls — the row of buttons used to step through the game.
  • Moves and annotations — the scrollable list of moves, comments, symbols and variations. The current move is highlighted and kept in view within this panel as you navigate. Drag the handle along the bottom edge of this panel, or use the arrow keys when it is focused, to change its height.

Showing and hiding the game details

Depending on how the viewer is configured, the game details panel may be shown or collapsed when it first loads. Press the Hide Details button to collapse it and give the board more room; the button then reads Show Details, and pressing it again brings the panel back. When a viewer holds several games, the chosen state is kept as you switch between them.

Switching between games

When a single [penguin] block contains more than one game — for example a Lichess study or a round report — a Game drop-down appears in the top bar. Choose a game to load its details, moves and board position. The board orientation, details visibility and annotation visibility you have chosen are kept as you move between games.

Sharing a link

Press Share to copy a link to this viewer on the current page. Opening that link scrolls straight to the board. When several games are embedded in one block, the copied link also records which game you have selected, so recipients land on the same game. The button briefly reads Link copied to confirm the address is on the clipboard.

Flipping the board

By default the board is shown from White's point of view, with the white pieces along the bottom and the black pieces along the top. Press Flip Board to turn it around so the black pieces are at the bottom and the white pieces at the top; press it again to return to the default orientation. The chosen orientation is kept as you step through the moves.

Showing and hiding annotations

By default the moves panel shows everything the PGN carries alongside the moves: human comments, Lichess computer-analysis text (such as “Blunder. Na5 was best.”), annotation symbols (!, ?, , and so on) and the coloured move-quality styling from Lichess analysis. Press Annotations to hide all of these and leave only the bare moves and variation lines; press it again to bring the annotations back. Variations remain available and can still be followed when annotations are hidden. When a viewer holds several games, the chosen state is kept as you switch between them.

Evaluation bar

When the PGN includes engine evaluations, a horizontal bar beneath the board shows who stands better in the current position, from White's point of view. The white portion grows from the left as White's advantage increases and shrinks as Black takes over. The number in the centre is the score: a value prefixed with + favours White, favours Black, 0.0 is equal, and a value such as #5 indicates forced mate. The bar is hidden for games that contain no evaluations.

Moves and variations

Click any move in the moves panel — on the main line or inside a variation — to jump straight to that position; the board and highlighted move update to match. Alternative lines branch off the main line and appear in brackets within the panel. Click a variation's opening move to enter that line from the start, or click any move within the variation to land on that position directly. Continue stepping forward to play through the line, or click a main-line move to return to the principal continuation.

Controls

The control buttons change which position is shown on the board, and the highlighted move updates to match:

  • « Start — jumps to the initial position before the first move.
  • ‹ Back — steps back one move.
  • + Autoplay — toggles automatic playback, advancing one move at a time until the end of the line; press again to stop.
  • › Forward — steps forward one move.
  • » End — jumps to the final position of the current line.

Click anywhere on the viewer and use the left and right arrow keys to step backward and forward. On smaller screens the moves panel shrinks to fit the remaining viewport height so the board and current move stay visible; only the panel scrolls, not the whole page.

Annotation symbols

Penguin translates numeric PGN annotation codes into the symbols below. Press Annotations in the top bar to hide or show them together with comments and Lichess move-quality colours.

Lichess.org

These symbols appear in Lichess studies and exported PGN. Computer analysis also colours the move, its symbol and any judgement text in matching colours: green for good (), magenta for interesting (), blue for inaccuracies (), orange for mistakes (), and red for blunders (). Human comments keep the default muted styling unless they are part of a Lichess computer judgement.

Move quality
Good move
Mistake
Brilliant move
Blunder
Interesting move
Dubious move
Only move
Zugzwang
Position assessment
Equal position
Unclear position
White is slightly better
Black is slightly better
White is better
Black is better
White is winning
Black is winning
Strategic annotations
Development
Initiative
Attack
With compensation
Counterplay
Time trouble
With the idea…
Novelty
ChessBase.com

ChessBase exports numeric codes in PGN for these symbols. Move-quality and position symbols overlap with Lichess; ChessBase-specific annotations are listed separately at the end.

Move quality
Good move
Mistake
Brilliant move
Blunder
Interesting move
Dubious move
Only move
Zugzwang
Position assessment
Equal position
Equal chances, quiet position
Equal chances, active position
Unclear position
White is slightly better
Black is slightly better
White is better
Black is better
White is winning
Black is winning
White has a crushing advantage
Black has a crushing advantage
Strategic annotations
Black is in zugzwang
White has a moderate space advantage
Black has a moderate space advantage
Development
Black has a moderate time/development advantage
Initiative
Black has the initiative
Attack
Black has the attack
With compensation
Black has sufficient compensation
Counterplay
Black has moderate counterplay
Time trouble
With the idea…
Novelty
ChessBase-specific annotations
Aimed against…
Better is…
Worse is…
Equivalent is…
Editorial comment

Credits

Penguin chess viewer, version 1.0.8.
Author: Paul Hampton, Timegalore Ltd, www.timegalore.co.uk. Copyright © 2026.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 or later.

Event
Hoogovens Group A
Site
Wijk aan Zee NED
Date
1999.01.20
Round
4
White
Garry Kasparov
Black
Veselin Topalov
Result
1-0
ECO
B07
WhiteElo
2812
BlackElo
2700
EventDate
1999.01.16
1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 Bg7 5. Qd2 c6 6. f3 b5 7. Nge2 Nbd7 8. Bh6 Bxh6 9. Qxh6 Bb7 10. a3 e5 11. O-O-O Qe7 12. Kb1 a6 13. Nc1 O-O-O 14. Nb3 exd4 15. Rxd4 c5 16. Rd1 Nb6 17. g3 Kb8 18. Na5 Ba8 19. Bh3 d5 20. Qf4+ Ka7 21. Rhe1 d4 22. Nd5 Nbxd5 23. exd5 Qd6 24. Rxd4 cxd4 25. Re7+ Kb6 26. Qxd4+ Kxa5 27. b4+ Ka4 28. Qc3 Qxd5 29. Ra7 Bb7 30. Rxb7 Qc4 31. Qxf6 Kxa3 32. Qxa6+ Kxb4 33. c3+ Kxc3 34. Qa1+ Kd2 35. Qb2+ Kd1 36. Bf1 Rd2 37. Rd7 Rxd7 38. Bxc4 bxc4 39. Qxh8 Rd3 40. Qa8 c3 41. Qa4+ Ke1 42. f4 f5 43. Kc1 Rd2 44. Qa7