Answers.Body: <blockquote>
  <p>Is the result of a game a (the) must at the end of every PGN?</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>No.</p>
  <p>The original specification is available <a href="http://www.saremba.de/chessgml/standards/pgn/pgn-complete.htm" rel="noreferrer">here</a>. It makes no mention of any information which is absolutely required for such a file to be valid.</p>
  <p>From the introduction to the document:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>The intent of the definition and propagation of PGN is to facilitate the sharing of public domain chess game data among chessplayers (both organic and otherwise), publishers, and computer chess researchers throughout the world.</p>
  <p>PGN is not intended to be a general purpose standard that is suitable for every possible use; no such standard could fill all conceivable requirements. Instead, PGN is proposed as a universal portable representation for data interchange. The idea is to allow the construction of a family of chess applications that can quickly and easily process chess game data using PGN for import and export among themselves.</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>The document goes on to describe how different chess game related data can be exchanged using the standard. It does not define a minimally correct pgn file. It presents a solution to the problem of a universal standard for exchanging chess game data. It does not address what to do if you have no such data to exchange.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-04-13T19:07:40.450Z
Answers.Text: what about in practice? what is the minimum pgn you can load into programs?
Answers.UserDisplayName: brekker
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-04-13T19:21:32.393Z
Answers.Text: @brekker how about creating a new board on chessbase and exporting to pgn. it gives `[Event "?"]
  [Site "?"]
  [Date "????.??.??"]
  [Round "?"]
  [White "?"]
  [Black "?"]
  [Result "*"]
  [PlyCount "0"]
  
   *
  `
Answers.UserDisplayName: cmgchess
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-04-13T19:36:00.390Z
Answers.Text: interesting, i tried importing something similar (a couple fewer tags) to chess.com but it said invalid pgn
Answers.UserDisplayName: brekker
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-04-13T20:38:33.820Z
Answers.Text: Very good. Since ignoring it is out of question, we have tp look for either a 1) space 1 dot (marking start of new game), 2) the "[" char meaning the header of a new game 3) a new game that doesn't start on 1 (and has no FEN header... tricky) 4) end of file. I can't think of other alternatives to a game ending without a result. Many thanks, now we know :) Situation 3 would be hell if new game starts on move numbers previous game ended. Theoretically, it might even CONTINUE ok...
Answers.UserDisplayName: Jorge Al Najjar
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Answers.CreationDate: 2023-04-13T18:10:00.913Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2023-04-13T18:10:00.913Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Brian Towers
Body: <p>Is the result of a game a (the) must at the end of every PGN?
  (I mean any of &quot;1-0&quot;, &quot;0-1&quot;, &quot;1/2-1/2&quot;, and &quot;*&quot;)
  So... we can have a whole set of tags, then a &quot;1/2-1/2&quot; result with no moves, and enjoy it as a valid PGN. A PGN with no moves.</p>
  <p>[Event: whatever]</p>
  <p>[White: me]</p>
  <p>[Black: also me]</p>
  <p>1/2-1/2</p>
  <p>Since I can have a PGN with no tags as well, I'm wondering if the minimum requirement you need for a valid PGN game is only the result at the end. Is it?</p>
  <p>In this case, the smallest PGN would be: *<br />
  &quot;Nothing known about who played, where or why, and nobody made a move, and then we also don't know, but maybe they died if it is a very old game&quot;.</p>
  <p>Which brings me to the other question, should my superhuman interdimensional parser nexus consider a PGN game without result a no-go invalid PGN (especially considering no tag with result was not provided either)?</p>
  <p>And I would appreciate if someone could tell us if, when the result is in a tag, it is not necessary to display it after moves? (which would then be a valid case of 'no need to write result at end' scenario.)</p>
  
Tags: <pgn>
Title: What are the *musts* of PGN?
ThreadText: # What are the *musts* of PGN?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2023-04-13)
  
  Is the result of a game a (the) must at the end of every PGN?
  (I mean any of "1-0", "0-1", "1/2-1/2", and "\*")
  So... we can have a whole set of tags, then a "1/2-1/2" result with no moves, and enjoy it as a valid PGN. A PGN with no moves.
  
  [Event: whatever]
  
  [White: me]
  
  [Black: also me]
  
  1/2-1/2
  
  Since I can have a PGN with no tags as well, I'm wondering if the minimum requirement you need for a valid PGN game is only the result at the end. Is it?
  
  In this case, the smallest PGN would be: \*  
  "Nothing known about who played, where or why, and nobody made a move, and then we also don't know, but maybe they died if it is a very old game".
  
  Which brings me to the other question, should my superhuman interdimensional parser nexus consider a PGN game without result a no-go invalid PGN (especially considering no tag with result was not provided either)?
  
  And I would appreciate if someone could tell us if, when the result is in a tag, it is not necessary to display it after moves? (which would then be a valid case of 'no need to write result at end' scenario.)
  
  **Tags:** pgn
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2023-04-13. Score: 6
  
  > Is the result of a game a (the) must at the end of every PGN?
  
  No.
  
  The original specification is available [here](http://www.saremba.de/chessgml/standards/pgn/pgn-complete.htm). It makes no mention of any information which is absolutely required for such a file to be valid.
  
  From the introduction to the document:
  
  > The intent of the definition and propagation of PGN is to facilitate the sharing of public domain chess game data among chessplayers (both organic and otherwise), publishers, and computer chess researchers throughout the world.
  >
  > PGN is not intended to be a general purpose standard that is suitable for every possible use; no such standard could fill all conceivable requirements. Instead, PGN is proposed as a universal portable representation for data interchange. The idea is to allow the construction of a family of chess applications that can quickly and easily process chess game data using PGN for import and export among themselves.
  
  The document goes on to describe how different chess game related data can be exchanged using the standard. It does not define a minimally correct pgn file. It presents a solution to the problem of a universal standard for exchanging chess game data. It does not address what to do if you have no such data to exchange.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_2**: what about in practice? what is the minimum pgn you can load into programs?  
  > **username_3**: @username_2 how about creating a new board on chessbase and exporting to pgn. it gives `[Event "?"] [Site "?"] [Date "????.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "?"] [Black "?"] [Result "*"] [PlyCount "0"]   * `  
  > **username_2**: interesting, i tried importing something similar (a couple fewer tags) to chess.com but it said invalid pgn  
  > **username_0**: Very good. Since ignoring it is out of question, we have tp look for either a 1) space 1 dot (marking start of new game), 2) the "[" char meaning the header of a new game 3) a new game that doesn't start on 1 (and has no FEN header... tricky) 4) end of file. I can't think of other alternatives to a game ending without a result. Many thanks, now we know :) Situation 3 would be hell if new game starts on move numbers previous game ended. Theoretically, it might even CONTINUE ok...  
  
  ---
  
  