Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your CBV file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert CBV to another file type
To convert CBV archives to another format, you need ChessBase or other Database software.
Convert a file to CBV
To convert other file formats to the "Chess Database Archive" file type, you need software like ChessBase or a similar tool.
About CBV files
A .CBV file is a Chess game database archive created by ChessBase. It bundles multiple internal database files (like CBH, CBG, CBA) into a single compressed package for easy sharing of chess games, annotations, and player data. Users typically open these files with ChessBase or the free ChessBase Reader, as documented on Wikipedia. This format is strictly proprietary. It is impossible to open .CBV files with standard archive tools like WinRAR or generic database software. The heavy reliance on the ChessBase ecosystem means users are locked into their proprietary software. Without it, the chess games and deep annotations are completely inaccessible. The best target format is PGN (Portable Game Notation). PGN is universal, plain text, and works natively across all modern chess platforms like Lichess and Chess.com. When converting to PGN, complex graphical annotations or proprietary training media might be lost, but the core chess moves and text annotations remain fully intact. Because .CBV is a closed, proprietary archive, standard online converters fail to process it. Usually, only the original ChessBase software can unpack and export the data properly. We can still identify the file format, inspect the binary contents, and extract raw text or internal data blocks. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or partial conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your CBV file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert CBV file to EXE, ISO, BIN, CUE, PAK, WAD, PK3, PK4, BSP, MAP, SAV or DAT, you can use ChessBase or similar software from the "Chess Database Storage Archive" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MOD, BIN, CFG, SCX, DAT, MPQ, LOG, CUE, INI, EXE, SCM or ISO files to CBV, try ChessBase or another comparable tool in the "Chess Database Storage Archive" category.
The CBV Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our CBV converter.