Open jxu opened 2 weeks ago
The PGN standard is not that standard :) and chess software adapted by disregarding such recommendations. PGNs were designed as immutable paper notations for played OTB games, but nowadays they are used more in analyses, puzzles and that stuff. The mandatory tags are pointless for many of these scenarios. Even for online games most of those tags are meaningless.
It's largely standardized. Plus even without machine reading it's useful for a human as a placeholder.
The PGN format is quite specific for its mandatory 7 tags (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Game_Notation#Seven_Tag_Roster). I suggest having placeholder text to guide users when filling out the tags, for convenience:
Event: Tournament Name Site: New York City, NY USA (3 letter country code) Date: 2024.01.01 Round: 1 White: Lastname, Firstname Black: Lastname, Firstname Result: 1-0 (or * for ongoing)