Free tool
Chess board editor and FEN viewer
How it works
Build or paste any position. Place pieces from the palette on the board, edit each of the six FEN fields directly, and the FEN string stays in sync both ways. Paste a PGN to step through the game move by move, then copy a link that carries the exact position.
- Runs in your browser
- No email needed
- 3 cited sources
Pick a piece below, then tap or press Enter on any square. Tapping a square that already holds the selected piece clears it.
Placing a king replaces the other king of the same colour.
The link carries the position, so whoever opens it lands on exactly this board.
How it works
The method behind the numbers
Forsyth-Edwards Notation packs a whole position into one line of six fields: piece placement rank by rank from Black’s back rank, side to move, castling rights, en-passant target square, halfmove clock, and fullmove number. This editor renders every field as an editable control, so you can see what each part does instead of treating the string as opaque text.
The editor keeps the rules honest while you work. Castling rights drop automatically when a king or rook leaves its home square, the en-passant target only survives when it is actually reachable, captures and pawn moves reset the halfmove clock, and every move in a loaded game uses proper SAN disambiguation such as Nbd2 versus Nfd2.
The board, FEN and PGN handling runs in your browser, and the tool makes no request that sends what you paste to a server. A copied link does contain the FEN, so share it only where you are happy for that position to be seen. Malformed FEN strings are rejected with the specific reason, such as which group of squares has the wrong count or which field is missing, rather than rendering a wrong board.
The same job inside ChessCore
Chess game analysis for coaches
Reviewing a student game with an engine is one step of a coaching workflow. ChessCore, which we build, is academy software where Stockfish evaluates the games a coach picks and the AI drafts explanations that a coach reviews before they are shared.
See game analysis
Related tools and guides
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Questions
Frequently asked questions
What does a FEN string look like?
The starting position is rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1. The first long field is the board from Black’s back rank down, then side to move (w), castling rights (KQkq), en passant square (-), the halfmove clock, and the fullmove number.
How do I set up a position by hand?
Pick a colour and a piece in the palette, then tap squares to place pieces. Tapping a square that already holds the selected piece clears it, placing a king replaces the other king of the same colour, and Clear board empties everything so you can start from scratch. The FEN updates after every change.
Does the editor check whether the position is legal?
It checks structure and basic board rules, not whether the position could arise in a real game. The six fields are parsed first, so a final group with one piece missing gives Rank 8 has 7 squares instead of 8 (groups are counted in the order they appear, from Black’s back rank). Then the chess.js library checks for one king per side, no pawns on the first or eighth rank and a possible en-passant capture. A position can pass all of that and still be unreachable: fifteen black queens and a king on the board are accepted. A valid example is 4k3/8/8/8/8/8/8/R3K2R w KQ - 0 1.
How do I view a game from a PGN file?
Open the Game viewer tab, paste the PGN, and press Load game. You get the event, players, and result headers when present, a clickable move list, first, previous, next, and last controls, arrow-key stepping, and the position after any selected move on the board. Comments in braces show under the board. Games with variations follow the main line and say so.
How does sharing a position by link work?
Copy link builds a URL ending in ?fen= followed by the current position. Whoever opens it sees exactly your board, including side to move and castling rights. The address bar also tracks your edits live, so bookmarking mid-session saves the position too. The FEN travels entirely inside the link, so there is no account and no database. A link shares a board position only: it holds no hidden answer, no engine analysis and no record that anyone solved or submitted anything.
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