diff --git a/katrain/core/game_node.py b/katrain/core/game_node.py
index 7572eaf..a2db1b7 100644
--- a/katrain/core/game_node.py
+++ b/katrain/core/game_node.py
@@ -138,8 +138,8 @@ class GameNode(SGFNode):
                 *comments,
                 f"\nSGF generated by {PROGRAM_NAME} {VERSION}{SGF_INTERNAL_COMMENTS_MARKER}\n",
             ]
-            properties["CA"] = "UTF-8"
-            properties["AP"] = f"{PROGRAM_NAME}:{VERSION}"
+            properties["CA"] = ["UTF-8"]
+            properties["AP"] = [f"{PROGRAM_NAME}:{VERSION}"]
         if self.shortcut_from:
             properties["KTSF"] = [id(self.shortcut_from)]
         elif "KTSF" in properties:
diff --git a/katrain/core/sgf_parser.py b/katrain/core/sgf_parser.py
index 8cdc2d5..a233d9f 100644
--- a/katrain/core/sgf_parser.py
+++ b/katrain/core/sgf_parser.py
@@ -326,6 +326,7 @@ class SGFNode:
 
 
 class SGF:
+    DEFAULT_ENCODING = "ISO-8859-1"  # as specified by the standard
 
     _NODE_CLASS = SGFNode  # Class used for SGF Nodes, can change this to something that inherits from SGFNode
     # https://xkcd.com/1171/
@@ -365,8 +366,11 @@ class SGF:
                     if match:
                         encoding = match[1].decode("ascii", errors="ignore")
                     else:
-                        encoding = "ISO-8859-1"  # default
-                decoded = bin_contents.decode(encoding=encoding, errors="ignore")
+                        encoding = cls.DEFAULT_ENCODING
+                try:
+                    decoded = bin_contents.decode(encoding=encoding, errors="ignore")
+                except LookupError:
+                    decoded = bin_contents.decode(encoding=cls.DEFAULT_ENCODING, errors="ignore")
             if is_ngf:
                 return cls.parse_ngf(decoded)
             if is_gib: