Documentation · The archive
Getting Started
How to begin: who you are, your games, and from there the main things the app can do.
While the archive is empty, the right of the main window shows the welcome: “Your chess archive, on your Mac. Here is how to get started.” There are four steps, each with the button that does it. With the first game, the welcome gives way to the list. This page also opens from the Help › Getting Started menu.
1. Tell us who you are
Set Up Profile… opens Settings › Profile: first name, last name, FIDE ID and the aliases, that is the usernames of your online accounts and the other names you appear under in PGN files. With these the app recognises your games among all the others, with the colour you had: My games fills itself, and the statistics, the repertoire and the explorer talk about you. Once the profile has a name or the FIDE ID, the step is ticked.
You can also do it after importing: when you save the profile, the app recognises your games among those already there. See Profile.
2. Load your games
Import… opens the Import games window (also from the File menu, ⇧⌘I), with four tabs: PGN file, Paste and the two for the online sites. For an online account of yours the name is enough: the app downloads the games and imports them in the background, and meanwhile Background work, at the bottom of the sidebar, shows how far it has got. A game you already have is not added twice. A PGN file can also be dragged from the Finder onto the main window. See Importing games.
Do you want other people’s games too, your next opponents’ or the great champions’? There are millions on the web, for free: where, and what to do with them, is told in Building your archive.
3. Or create a game by hand
New game opens the editor on an empty game, like ⌘N or the + button in the toolbar. Play it on the board, and with a click on the players, top left, write the game data: who was playing, the tournament, the date, the result. Save (⌘S) saves it.
4. Discover every feature
Open the Guide leads to this page. The rest is in the documentation, one window at a time; from any window, Help › Terza Torre Help (⌘?) opens the page of the one in front of you.
And then
- Going over a game: a click in the list shows it on the right with its board, a double click opens it in the editor. See The main window.
- What has been played from here: in the editor, the explorer looks for the position on the board in the whole archive, at every move.
- Finding games: Find (⌘F) takes you to the search field at the top right, which filters the list as you type; Search games… (⌥⌘F) searches by players, Elo, tournament, opening and position. See Search.
- The engine: Arasan, included in the app, analyses the position while you look at it; automatic analysis annotates the whole game.
- Your statistics: View › Show statistics (⌘L). See Statistics.
- Studying a position on its own: studies.
- Getting ready: the repertoire with White and with Black, and the opponent dossiers.
- A backup of the archive: File › Archive health…, Backup section. See Archive health.
What is free and what belongs to Pro is on the Terza Torre Pro page.