Importing Games

Masterboard supports five import sources, all on the Import menu in the top-right of the Games page. Each menu item opens its own dialog or file picker.

From chess.com

1. From the Import menu, choose From Chess.com….
2. Enter your chess.com username (saved automatically if set in Connected Accounts).
3. Set the date range — use the start and end date pickers to target a specific period.
4. Choose time controls: Bullet, Blitz, Rapid, Classical, and/or Correspondence.
5. Click Preview. Masterboard fetches matching games from the chess.com API (up to your Max games limit, default 50) and shows them in a preview list, paginated with a Show more control.
6. Select individual games or use Select all, then click Import.

From Lichess

The Lichess import flow is identical to chess.com. Choose From Lichess… on the Import menu, enter your username, pick a date range and time controls, preview, and import.

Note

Both chess.com and Lichess imports require an internet connection. Masterboard stores the imported games locally — no connection is needed for subsequent access.

Tip

To pull in new games automatically going forward — instead of re-running this dialog — turn on Automatic Sync for the account.

From a Lichess Study

1. From the Import menu, choose From Lichess Study….
2. Enter the study URL (e.g. https://lichess.org/study/xxxxxxxx) or connect your Lichess account via OAuth in Connected Accounts to browse your own studies.
3. Click Load. Masterboard fetches the study’s chapters and shows them in a preview list.
4. Select the chapters to import, then choose the destination: Opening Repertoire (creates or merges into a repertoire) or Games Library.
5. Click Import.

Note

Public studies can be imported without an account connection. Private studies require Lichess OAuth to be set up first — see Connected Accounts.

From a PGN file

1. From the Import menu, choose PGN file….
2. Pick a .pgn file in the file dialog.

Both single-game and multi-game PGN files are supported. Masterboard reads standard PGN including:

• Multiple games in a single file
• RAV variation trees (1.e4 e5 (1...c5 2.Nf3) 2.Nf3)
• NAG symbols ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, and text suffixes !, ?, !!, ??, !?, ?!)
• Free-text comments { ... }
• Clock annotations { [%clk H:MM:SS] } from Lichess/chess.com exports (stored but not displayed)

From a PGN folder

1. From the Import menu, choose PGN folder….
2. Pick a directory in the file dialog.

All .pgn files in the folder and its subfolders are imported. This is useful for importing a large collection, such as an archive download from chess.com or a folder of tournament files.

Deduplication

Every import — regardless of source — runs deduplication. A game is identified by a hash of its normalised move sequence. If the same game is imported again (even from a different source), it is silently skipped. You can safely re-run an import without creating duplicates.

After import

• Games appear immediately in the Games list.
• Games imported without an [ECO] header are automatically classified using Masterboard’s embedded opening book (3,397 openings from the Lichess database).
• Games are placed in the Unfiled folder. Move them into folders afterwards (see Folders & Collections).

Next steps

• Organise games into folders and collections
• Run engine analysis on your imported games