How to caption a chess video for YouTube
YouTube’s automatic captions are trained on general speech. They hear “knight e4” as “night E for” and “bishop c6” as “bishop see six”, and they have never met the Najdorf. Uploading your own subtitle file fixes that, and it takes about ten minutes.
1. Export the audio
You can drop the finished mp4 straight into Chesscribe, but audio-only files are smaller and faster. In most editors, export or “share” as an m4a or mp3. Anything under 45 minutes works in the browser; split longer videos into parts.
2. Transcribe with the chess grammar on
Open the studio, pick the Base engine (or Small on Pro for the best accuracy), and choose a style. Clean (“knight e4, bishop takes c6”) reads best as subtitles. Notation (“Ne4, Bxc6”) suits study videos where viewers expect algebraic notation on screen.
3. Review the corrections panel
Every change the grammar made is listed with a timestamp. Click one to hear that moment. Fix anything the speech model still missed by editing the cue text directly.
4. Download .srt and upload it to YouTube
In YouTube Studio open your video, choose Subtitles, then Add under your language and Upload file. Pick “With timing” and select the .srt. YouTube shows the captions immediately and also indexes the text for search, which is why correctly spelled openings and player names matter for discovery.
5. Optional: keep the PGN
Pro users can export the moves that were spoken as a PGN file, which is a handy starting point for a study or a description-box game link. It reflects moves as spoken, so check it against the actual game.