A small tweak to apply to a PGN file output by ChessBase

Here's another minor tweak which might be of benefit to, say, one ChessBase user in every 1,000. Yes, it's very obscure but someone who creates and distributes PGN files, or maybe uploads them to the web, might find it useful.

This is something I personally do a lot. Every games file you see on BritBase is output from ChessBase to a PGN file and then uploaded to the web. I've already described how I create a PGN file for email transmission or web uploading in a previous post here. It's pretty simple and I do recommend you read the detail. To summarise, you highlight the games you want to batch into a PGN file, select OUTPUT and then SELECTION TO TEXT in the drop-down menus, create the file and you're done.

A quick recap of the basics of creating a PGN output file from ChessBase

THE "POINT" OF THIS POST...

The output from that is OK but there's just one little quirk that bugs me. If a player's name is given in the original database with initials (e.g. Atkins, HE) rather than with full forenames (Atkins, Henry Ernest), then you'll discover that ChessBase adds a gratuitous full stop (period to North American readers) after the initials in the output PGN file.

So: Atkins, HE becomes Atkins, HE. 

I know there are more important things to worry about in life but that gratuitous little dot bugs me. I didn't ask for it and I don't want it.

It's a bit weird because it doesn't do it to a middle name initial. If the name is, for example:

Thomas, George A then ChessBase outputs it correctly as Thomas, George A

So it only happens to initials or pairs of initials. But why does it happen? Answering my own question, I think it is a throwback to a time when ChessBase didn't have a proper forename field and only had room for a couple of initials. Then you'd see databases littered with these dots after initials. When the software was upgraded in the late 1990s I guess this particular feature was forgotten about and not updated. But that's just my guess.

HOW TO GET RID OF THE FULL STOPS

What to do about it? I've not found a solution within ChessBase itself, but have come up with a workaround that solves the problem. It involves the use of different software. I use something called TextPad but other brands of text editors are available and will probably work. (I tested it with Notepad++ and it worked fine.)

One of the good things about PGN files is that, if you don't like the way they are formatted, you can edit them with a text editor. And that's what I do to eliminate the unwanted full stops.

The steps are as follows:

1. Open the PGN file in TextPad (or the text editor of your choice)

2. Run the following global edit...

Find                  ^\[(White|Black)( \"[a-z, ]*)\.(\"\])

Replace with    [$1$2$3

n.b. it's best to cut and paste from the above, to make sure you don't fail to include the two single spaces that appear in the 'Find' field

3. Save the file

You're done - your PGN file is now free of those pesky little dots. If it's something you do a lot, you'll probably want to make it into a macro. I've done that and run the macro routinely as the last thing I do before uploading files to BritBase.