Reference Games

The Reference Games tab provides a read-only library of master and instructive games. These are games you have imported specifically for study purposes, typically from curated collections, tournament bulletins, or opening monographs. While the interface closely mirrors the My Games tab, Reference Games are designed for viewing and studying rather than editing, preserving the integrity of your reference collection.

How Reference Games Differ from My Games

The key distinction is that Reference Games are read-only. You can browse, filter, view, and analyze reference games, but you cannot modify their annotations, comments, or metadata. This ensures that your curated master game collection remains intact as a reliable reference source.

The features available in Reference Games include:

• Full game viewing: Navigate through any game move by move on the interactive chess board.
• Existing annotations: View any comments, symbols (NAGs), and other annotations that were included in the original PGN file.
• Engine analysis: Activate the bundled Stockfish engine to analyze any position in a reference game.
• Sorting and filtering: Use the same table sorting and filtering capabilities as in My Games to find specific games.
• Board controls: Flip the board perspective, view the evaluation bar, and use all the standard board interaction features.

The features that are not available in Reference Games:

• Adding or editing comments.
• Adding or changing move annotation symbols (NAGs).
• Drawing arrows or highlighting squares.
• Editing game metadata (players, event, date, etc.).
• Game review with blunder classification.

For a detailed explanation of the game workspace interface, including the chess board, move list, and navigation controls, see the My Games documentation, which covers these shared elements in depth.

Browsing Your Reference Collection

The Reference Games library presents your collection in the same sortable table format as My Games. You can see player names, results, dates, events, openings, and ECO codes at a glance.

Use the column headers to sort your collection. This is particularly useful for organizing games by opening or date when studying a specific opening system or following a player's career development.

Filtering

The filter controls let you narrow down the reference library by various criteria:

• Player: Search for games by a specific grandmaster or player.
• Opening / ECO: Find all games in a particular opening system.
• Result: Filter by decisive games or draws.
• Date: Focus on games from a specific period.

This makes it easy to assemble a focused study set. For example, you might filter for all Najdorf Sicilian games by Kasparov to study his handling of that opening.

Viewing a Reference Game

Select any game from the library to open it in the game workspace. The workspace displays the chess board, full move list with any original annotations, and the engine panel (when activated). Navigate through the game using the move list or keyboard shortcuts.

Since reference games are read-only, you study them by following the moves, reading the original annotations, and optionally running the engine to compare your understanding with computer evaluation.

Open in Openings

From the game workspace toolbar, click the Openings button to jump to the current board position in the Openings tab. ChessMovio automatically switches to Reference mode and navigates to the position, letting you see how this game fits into your broader opening tree.

Tip: When studying a reference game, try to predict the next move before advancing. This active approach reinforces pattern recognition and deepens your understanding of the positions.

Copying Games to My Games

If you find a reference game that you want to annotate with your own analysis, you can copy it to your My Games library:

1. Open the reference game you want to annotate.
2. Use the copy action (available in the toolbar or context menu).
3. The game is duplicated into your My Games collection.
4. Open the copied game in My Games, where you now have full editing capabilities.

This workflow preserves the original reference game untouched while giving you a personal copy to annotate freely. It is especially useful when preparing for a specific opponent or when your coach assigns a master game for detailed analysis.

Building Your Reference Library

Reference games are imported through the Sources tab by selecting the "Reference Games" type during PGN import. You can also promote individual games from the Inbox or external databases using the "Copy to Reference Games" action. Good sources for reference games include:

• Tournament game collections from chess databases.
• Opening monograph game appendices.
• Curated best-games collections.
• Games recommended by your chess coach.
• Games found in mounted external databases (Lichess archives).

Tip: Keep your reference library focused and curated. A smaller collection of well-chosen, relevant games is more valuable for study than a massive database of random games. Use the Databases feature (macOS) when you need to search through large external databases.