# Quick Guide to using Scid

Scid is a chess database application; with it you can browse databases of chess games, edit games and search for games by various criteria.

Scid uses its own special three-file database format which is very compact and fast, but it can convert to and from the standard PGN (Portable Game Notation) format. Scid's PGN window displays the text of the current game in PGN format.

You can use Scid to add chess games to a database, using the keyboard or mouse to enter moves. See the help page on entering chess moves for more details.

You can also use Scid as a PGN file browser, by pasting PGN text into Scid's Import window or by opening a PGN file in Scid. However, PGN files cannot be edited by Scid (it opens them read-only) and they use more memory and are slower to load, so for large PGN files it is recommended that you create a Scid database from them first with the pgnscid utility.

The main window of Scid (with the graphical chess board) shows details of the active game and database. At any time, you can have up to four databases open (five including the clipbase), and each will have its own active game. (A game numbered 0 indicates a scratch game that is not part of the actual database). You can switch between the open databases with the File menu.

For more information, please read the other help pages listed in the Help Index.

See the contact information page if you need to contact the author of Scid.

(Updated: Scid 3.1, December 2001)