Notation

When you play chess, it's good to have a record of your game so you can learn from your mistakes and get better.

To learn how notation works, it's important to know the names of the board's squares.

You might have noticed that every rank (row) has a number and every file (column) has a letter. A square's name is the letter followed by the number, as shown below:

This square is "b7".

This square is "g5".

This square is "d3".

When any piece (except a pawn) moves, a letter is used to represent it, as shown below:

When the king moves, put a "K" before the square name.

This move is "Kf3".

When queen moves, put a "Q" before the square name.

This move is "Qe6".

When a rook moves, put an "R" before the square name.

This move is "Rg7".

When a bishop moves, put a "B" before the square name.

This move is "Bf3".

When a knight moves, put an "N" before the square name. 

"Knight" starts with "k", but "k" is for "king", so we use "N" instead. And "Knight" sounds like it starts with "N".

This move is "Nd1".

When a pawn moves, we don't put "P" before the square name.

We only use the square name to say a pawn moved there.

So this move is "g4".

When two of the same piece can move to a square, you use a number or letter that makes that piece unique before the square name.

For example, this move is "Rbe4"

This move is "N6e5".

When a piece makes a capture, put an "x" between its letter and the square it captured on.

This move is "Rxg4".

When pawn makes a capture, put the letter of the file the pawn moved from before the "x".

This move is "bxc5".


Note: When you play en passant, write the square name of the square your pawn moved to, not your opponent's pawn's square.

When a move puts the opponent's king in check, put a "+" after the square name.

This move is "Qe4+".

A checkmate is written with "#" after the square name.

This move is "Rc8#".

Promotion is written with "=" after the square name, followed by the letter of the new piece.

This move is "h8=Q".

Kingside castling is written as "0-0" or "O-O".

Queenside castling is written as "0-0-0" or "O-O-O".

Just for fun, you can do almost all of those at once!

This move is "fxe8=R#".

Cool, isn't it?

When you start writing down the moves for the beginning of the game, you write white's moves on the left side and black's moves on the right side. To the left of white's move, you write the move number, as shown below.

When white moves the pawn to e4, the moves should look like this:

After black moves the pawn to e5, the moves should look like this:

When white moves the knight to f3, the moves should look like this:

After black moves the knight to c6, the moves should look like this:

Note: In different chess books, the author will sometimes refer to black's move as the number followed by three periods and then the move, like this: "1... e5". This is just because if there was only one period, that would mean white made the move.

Previous Lesson: 

Whew, that was a lot! It seems really complicated at first, but once you practice, it gets much easier! I hope you decide to start your chess journey here! Click that button below to go back to the Basics page.

The Basics