How to Read Chess Notation

Algebraic Notation Made Easy

by Steve Lopez

It's very important for every serious chess player to be able to read and use chess notation. It's the "international language" of chess and a means for players to share their games with each other as well as being the key which unlocks great games of the past to the enjoyment of generations of chessplayers.

There are several kinds of chess notation. An old form called "descriptive" notation was invented a couple of centuries ago and remained very much in use until the 1980's; even today you'll still see the occasional chess book or article which utilizes descriptive notation, but such cases are becoming increasingly rare.

The most popular/widely used form of chess notation these days is called "algebraic" notation. It's easy to learn and to use because every square on the chessboard has its own unique "name" (as opposed to descriptive notation in which these designations are always given from the viewpoint of the moving player's side of the board and are thus duplicated, albeit reversed each move). Even though the term "algebraic" makes this modern notation form sound complicated (and even a bit frightening), it's remarkably simple and can be learned in just a few minutes.

Let's look at a sample chessboard to learn the basics of algebraic chess notation:

Each of the files (the rows of squares that run up and down [or vertically]) has a letter designation seen at the bottom of the board in the above illustration. These letters from "a" to "h" run from left to right from the point of view of the White player. So White's leftmost file of squares is called the "a" file. Black (who faces the board from the top) has the "h" file as his leftmost file of squares.

Each rank (the rows of squares which run from left to right [or horizontally]) has a number designation from "1" to "8" (shown along the side of the board in the above illustration); these, too, are from White's point of view -- the rank closest to White is numbered "1" while the rank closest to Black is numbered "8".

Every square on the board has its own letter/number designation, always given with the letter (file) first. For example, the square in the lower left corner in the above illustration is called "a1". The square in the lower right corner is "h1". The White King is on square "e1", while the Black King sits on "e8". The easiest way to think of the names of the squares is to think of the game "Battleship": every square's name comes from the intersection of a lettered file and a numbered rank -- just combine the letter and number (making sure the letter comes first) and you have the coordinates (the "name") of that square.

Now that we understand how to read the coordinates of the squares, let's figure out how to designate an actual piece move. In this illustration, White makes the move indicated by the red arrow:

The Rook starts on the square a1, but we don't need to mention this in the notation (as long as only one White Rook can move to that square, but we'll talk more about that later). All we need to mention is the abbreviation for the moving piece and the name of square on which it ends its move. So the Rook move in the above illustration would be recorded in algebraic notation as Rd1.

Now would be a good time to list the abbreviations for the various pieces:

• King = K
• Queen = Q
• Rook = R
• Bishop = B
• Knight = N

Note that two different pieces' names start with "K": the King and the Knight. Since the King's the boss, he gets to use the "K" as his abbreviation, while the Knight has to settle for using the "N".

What about pawn moves? Sometimes you'll see a pawn move presented with a capital "P" but it's far more common to record a pawn move with just the coordinates of the square (the absence of a piece abbreviation indicates that it was a pawn which moved). So if White would start the game by moving the pawn in front of his King ahead two squares, the move would be recorded simply as e4.

On the printed page (as well as on handwritten scoresheets) moves are recorded in numbered pairs. Here's a simple opening move sequence given in algebraic notation; see if you can follow the moves:

1.e4 e5
2.Nf3 Nc6
3.Bc4 Bc5

The King's pawns each move ahead two squares. White brings out his King's Knight, while Black brings out his Queen's Knight, then both players bring out their King's Bishops, which results in the following position:

Now it's White's turn and he castles:

Whoops! How do we record that move in algebraic notation?

Castling is designated by the use of 0's (zeros, not the letter "o"):

• Kingside castling = 0-0
• Queenside castling = 0-0-0

1.e4 e5
2.Nf3 Nc6
3.Bc4 Bc5
4.0-0

Now Black replies by advancing his King's Knight:

This move would be written as 4....Nf6. When you see a move given by itself (outside of a complete gamescore), the three dots ("...", called an ellipsis) mean that the move was a Black move.

What happens when more than one of the same piece can move to a particular square?

Either White Rook can move to the square d1. The way we'd distinguish betwen them would be to include the moving Rook's starting file. So if the a1-Rook were to move to d1, the move would be recorded as Rad1 ("Rook on a to d1"). If the Rook on f1 was the one to make the move, you'd record it as Rfd1 ("Rook on f to d1").

There will also be cases when two similar pieces on the same file could move to the same square:

In the above illustration, either Black Knight could move to d6, but both Knights are on the b-file. In this case you'd use the rank number of the moving Knight. If the b7-Knight was the moving piece, you'd write the move as ...N7d6. If it was the b5-Knight moving, its move would be recorded as N5d6.

All of this might seem a bit confusing at first, but it's really pretty simple after a very short while. In fact, we're almost finished. We just need to look at a few special cases.

Captures are usually designated with a "x":

If the White Knight was to capture the Black Bishop, you'd record the move as Nxe4 ("Knight takes on e4"). If there was a f3-pawn doing the capturing instead:

...the move would be written as fxe4 (the lack of a capitalized piece abbreviation means that a pawn was making the move, as we noted earlier).

When a pawn reaches the eighth rank and promotes to another piece, you'd first record the pawn move, add an "equals" sign, and then the capital letter abbreviation for the piece the pawn becomes. For example, the move b8=Q means that White's b-pawn advanced and promoted to become a Queen.

Whenever a pawn makes an en passant capture, it's customary to add "e.p." after the move (for example: ...dxe3 e.p.). It's not strictly necessary to add this abbreviation but it's often very helpful to the reader.

If a plus sign ("+") follows a move, it means that the move put the opponent in check (...Re8+ means that Black moved his Rook to e8, putting White in check at the same time). If the "pound" sign ("#") follows a move, it means that the move checkmated the opponent and won the game (for example, a move presented as Qd8# means that White moved his Queen to d8 and checkmated Black).

At the end of games which don't end in mate, you'll often see some odd-looking numerical combination. Here's what these mean:

• 1-0 = White wins
• 0-1 = Black wins
• 1/2-1/2 = drawn game

While there are often other symbols used in chess game scores which are recorded using algebraic notation, what you've read here is enough to get you started. The next time you play a chess game, try writing all of the moves in algebraic notation; practice makes perfect and you'll doubtless be surprised at how easy it can be.

© 2009, Steven A. Lopez and ChessCentral. All rights reserved.