Chess Notation: Step-By-Step Guide For

Beginners
 Chess notation combines the chess piece moved with the new square it has
moved to, on the chess board.
 Chess notation uses abbreviations for each piece, using capitalized letters.
 King = K, Queen = Q, Bishop = B, Knight = N, Rook = R, Pawn = no
notation.
 Capturing an enemy piece sees an “x” placed between the piece moved and
the square the captured piece was upon.
 When the opponent’s king is threatened by check, a “+” sign is added to the
end of the notation.
 Castling kingside is written as “0-0”. Castling queenside is notated with “0-
0-0”.

Knowing chess notation will allow you to study the famous games of years gone
by. It will also allow you to follow along in instructional lessons such as those
offered by ichess.net.

You can’t learn from a teacher unless you speak their language, and chess notation
has become the lingua franca of the Royal Game.

Why Use Chess Notation at all?

Competitive chess games, even at a low level, require players to write down their
moves using chess notation. However, you may ask yourself why you need this
chess notation at all. When you play other board games, you don’t notate your
moves!

There are several reasons in chess, however, that makes it obvious as to why it is
so useful. The most apparent reason is that you are not allowed to participate in
chess tournaments if you do not know how to notate correctly.

Why is that? If there is a problem in a game or a dispute, the arbiter, who is there
to help you in these cases, must be aware of the progression of the game. It makes
it easier for any arbiter to look at a scoresheet, which is a clear evidence than to
rely on the memory of the players.

Another reason to use chess notation is that you can use your records to review the
critical moments of your games and analyze where you could have done better.
If you are serious about improving, you should do this every time you play. Just
like football players talk about and reflect on their previous matches, a chess player
has to analyze their games constantly to advance their skills.

All games of chess contain a lesson, but you can only extract this if you have the
game documented. The shortest pen is longer than the longest memory.

For players who frequently participate in tournaments, it even makes sense to use
their notations to save their games in chess databases. If you have saved your
games in a database, e.g. in the famous ChessBase, you even have the option to
analyze your games with the assistance of a chess engine.

Further, not understanding chess notation is the mark of a real beginner. It is the
equivalent of asking whether three-of-a-kind beats two pairs while sitting at a
poker table at the casino (incidentally, it does).

Such ignorance of the basics instantly betrays a lack of knowledge to everybody

else. This isn’t the vibe you want to be giving off before going into battle.

Chess itself takes a lifetime to master, but chess notation only needs a few minutes.
This article will explain everything to do with the algebraic notation – the most
common form of modern chess notation.

Let’s have a look on the concrete rules of chess notation. Firstly, you have to know
how the chess board is constructed.

The squares are allocated names using a coordinate system. Every square gets a
unique letter and number, in a grid formation.

From left-to-right from White’s perspective, the squares are ordered alphabetically
with letters from “a” through to “h”.

From Black’s point of view, the squares are in reverse alphabetical order – Black’s
left-most squares are “h” squares, and Black’s right-most squares are “a” squares.

Each square also gets a unique number, from “1” to “8”. The rank closest to the
White player in the initial setup are “1” squares, the next rank the “2” squares and
so on… to the rank closest to Black, which are “8” squares.
With this grid information, we have everything we need to give all 64 squares a
unique identifier using one letter and one number to combine its up-down
orientation with its left-right orientation, as per the diagram

The Chess Pieces

Chess notation also uses abbreviations for each soldier in the army, using
capitalized letters.

King =K
Queen = Q

Bishop = B

Knight = N

Rook =R

Pawn = no notation

The abbreviations are fairly straightforward to remember. In most cases, they are
simply the first letter of the piece’s name.

There are two exceptions. Knights are abbreviated as “N” because “K” is already
taken by the king.

Pawns aren’t assigned any capitalized letter – it would be more consistent if we

used “P” for the pawn, but for some reason, we don’t… maybe to save ink. Pawn
moves are indicated using only the square name.

Fortunately for English-speakers, the same capital letters for chess pieces are used
all over the world, allowing us to easily understand foreign games without needing
to refer to a translation dictionary. Germans call a bishop a “Läufer”, but write it as
“B” in chess notation, just like Anglophiles do.

Putting It All Together

Chess notation combines the chess piece moved with the new square it has moved
to on the chess board. A bishop moving to the c4 square is written as “Bc4”. A
pawn moving to the e3 square is written as “e3” (remember, pawns have no capital
letter). A queen moving to the a7 square is “Qa7”. You get the idea.

Moves are usually written in pairs, showing both the White and the Black move –
for instance, 1. e4 Nf6 shows that White used its first move to push a pawn to e4,
and Black responded by developing a knight to f6.
White’s bishop just moved to the square c4. Hence, the correct chess notation for
this move is “Bc4”.

Captures
Capturing an enemy piece sees an “x” placed between the piece moved and the
square the captured piece was upon. So, if a king captured a chess piece on e1, the
notation would show “Kxe1”.

The pawn captures require us to show which file the capturing pawn came from –
so a pawn which was on h3, capturing on g4 would be “hxg4”.
White’s knight just captured Black’s pawn on e5. The correct chess notation for
this move is “Nxe5”.

Check And Checkmate

When the opponent’s king is threatened by check, a “+” sign is added to the end of
the notation. A bishop capturing on f7 with check would be written as Bxf7+.
Checkmate is denoted with either “++” or “#” (either is acceptable), followed by
the result of the game (1-0 if White has won, 0-1 if Black has emerged triumphant,
or 1/2 – 1/2 if it’s a draw).
White’ bishop just moved to b5, giving check. The correct chess notation for this
move is “Bb5+”.

Castling
The notation for castling depends on which side of the board the king castled
towards. Castling kingside (with the rook that begins on the “h” file), is written as
“0-0”. Castling queenside (with the rook that begins on the “a” file) is notated with
“0-0-0”.
White just castled. The correct chess notation for this move is “0-0”.

Pawn Promotion
If a pawn makes it all the way to the end of the board to promote to a new piece,
add a “=” symbol, followed by the abbreviated capital letter of what it transformed
into. For instance, promoting a pawn on the b8 square to a queen would be written
as “b8=Q”.
White just promoted his a-pawn into a queen. The correct chess notation for this
move is “a8=Q”.

Removing Ambiguity
Occasionally, the situation arises where more than one of the same kind of piece
could move to the target square. For example, if you have rooks on both a8 and c8,
then either of them could move to b8.

Therefore, you need to note which piece was actually moved, so readers looking
back in the future are not confused. This is done by adding a starting identifier in
between the piece and the square. In this example, if the rook beginning on a8 were
moved to b8, it would be written as “Rab8”.
White just moved his knight from b1 to d2. However, the knight from f3 could
have also moved to d2. Hence, the correct chess notation for this move is “Nbd2”.

The Scoresheet – Where To Notate Your Moves?

The scoresheet is the place where each player must document his game.
Furthermore, each player has to write down the names of both players, the name of
the event with the number of the round, the date, result and, most importantly, all
the moves that are made throughout the whole game. There are different
scoresheets, but you can see an example on the right.

Additional information that you notate on your scoresheet could be the time left on
the clock if you are a player who often gets into time trouble.

Other notes could be concerning special claims during the game, very important –
offers of a draw or other relevant data. Moreover, the scoresheet must be visible to
the arbiter throughout the whole game.

If a player is not able to keep score, they must provide an assistant, accepted by the
arbiter, to undertake the chess notation. If neither player notates the moves, such as
in very fast time controls like Blitz, the arbiter or an assistant has to care for the
scoresheet and the players must check it right after the game. When nobody has
notated the moves, the players must reconstruct the game on a second board.
In the case of less than 5 minutes on the clock and without an addition of 30
seconds per move, a player doesn’t have the duty to write down any moves.

Another important rule is that you are not allowed to notate your move before you
actually move the piece on the board. The reason for that is that your trainer could
give you signs if that move is good or not which would be cheating.

At the end of a game, each player has to write down the result and sign both
scoresheets to confirm his agreement.

Interpretations
Chess analysts may add exclamation marks and question marks to their reviews. It
isn’t necessary to do this during the game – indeed, you shouldn’t, because
whether a move is brilliant or not is often only revealed in hindsight!

!! – brilliant move

! – good move

? – bad move

?? – terrible move

!? – unusual move

?! – dubious move

In Summary: How Chess Notation Works

All these chess notation rules may look complicated at first glance and seem like a
lot to take in, but after a little practice, how chess notation works will become
natural, just like a musician reading sheet music.

Even if you are only playing friendly games, get into the habit of identifying chess
pieces and squares now.

Aside from anything, it’s always interesting to look back at games you played long
ago – in years to come, you will wish you had your old games recorded. And by
getting into practice now, you will be able to write down chess notation like a pro
when you are ready to start playing at a club.