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Chess games can be written down in a simple, easy to read notation, so that you can send games to other people or study your own games later. This page will teach you to read and write algebraic chess notation.
In algebraic notation, each square has one and only one name (whether you are looking from White's side of the board or Black's).
Square names are given in lower-case letters;
Piece abbreviations are given in uppercase letters.
(in English, K=King; Q=Queen; R=Rook; B=Bishop; N=Knight)
Set up the board in the starting position, so that you are on the White side.
The columns (files) are lettered from left to right,
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h
The rows (ranks) are numbered from 1 to 8, from the closest to White to the farthest away.
So the White King starts the game on e1.
The Black King starts the game on e8.
The White Queen starts the game on d1.
The Black Queen starts the game on d8.
Although you can use the letter P for pawn, most people don't put in a "piece" name for a pawn move.
To write moves, give the piece first, then the square it ends up on.
Here's a typical Ruy Lopez in English Descriptive notation:
1.P-K4 P-K4 2.N-KB3 N-QB3 3.B-QN5 P-QR3 4.BxN
and here's the same game in English algebraic:
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. BxN
[Note move 3, where the capital B means Bishop and the lower case b means the b file.]
Most computer games and some people use a "full algebraic" format where you don't write the Piece abbreviations at all: you just give the starting and ending squares. This eliminates any international problems, and is easier for computers, but can be harder for people to follow.
Here's the same Ruy in "full algebraic"
1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2. g1-f3 b8-c6 3. f1-b5 a7-a6 4. b5-c6
However, while a lot of computers use full algebraic, most people prefer the "mixed" form, with piece abbreviations and square names.
If there's any confusion about which piece is moving, just add the starting square information. This is the same as in Descriptive.
For example, if I had rooks on the two corner squares of the first row, and I wanted to show which one moved to the King's starting square:
 |
 |
 |
| Getting ready to move a rook | |
After the rook has moved |
In English Descriptive:
25. KR-K1
or
25. R(KR1)-K1
in English algebraic, it's very similar:
25. R(h1)-e1
You just give as much information as is needed to clear up any confusion.
Some people would just write 25.R(h)-e1, for example, because that's all you need. It's usually safest, though, to use the format:
Piece abbreviation (starting square if necessary) - ending
square
While many people write captures using the names of both pieces, you can do this with the ending square as well. In our Ruy example, we could have written:
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6
or even
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. BxN(c6)
This last format would be used if there were two Knights that the Bishop might take. Again, just put in as much information as you need to make the move clear to the reader.
There's one more time when you need to use additional notation to clear up confusion about what actually happened during the game. When a pawn reaches the 8th rank, it turns into a piece (Queen, Rook, Bishop, or Knight)--but you get to decide which piece. So you need to record the piece chosen.
Before the 1970s, when chess database programs were not available, there were several ways of indicating which piece a pawn had been promoted to when it reached the 8th rank. All involved writing the move first and then putting the symbol of the new piece at the end.
So if you moved a pawn to b8 and made it a Queen, any of the following might have been used to record the move:
53. b8(Q)
53. b8/Q
53. b8=Q
53. b7-b8=Q
etc.
These days, the use of computers has tended to standardize the notation on the shortest format:
53. b8Q
If instead of a Queen, you promote your pawn to a Knight on move 53, it would be recorded as:
53. b8N
If the promoting piece gives check when it is promoted, it would be recorded as:
53. b8N+
Again it's just a matter of giving enough information to allow someone reading over the score to play through the game accurately.
There are a few more symbols used, but they're the same as the descriptive notation:
check + (as in BxN+) castles Kingside O-O castles Queenside O-O-O capture en passant e.p.
A win for white is normally written 1-0
A win for black is normally written 0-1
A draw may be written as = or as 1/2-1/2 or DRAW
People who learned Descriptive first may prefer it, but annotators tell us there are many fewer errors on scoresheets, even by grandmasters, when algebraic is used.
Most people can learn algebraic in a few minutes: it's just a question of learning the grid.
Algebraic is now the official format for FIDE (the international Chess Federation), as well as many national federations like the USCF (US Chess Federation). It tends to lead to fewer scoresheet errors, and can be more easily read by players from different countries.
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The CHESSBD PGN Viewer
Many chess journalists report game scores in PGN format. This is a form of algebraic, and also defines how the names of the players, the site location, and other comments will be written. PGN format files can be read by a PGN viewer. A PGN viewer will read a PGN file and "play back" the game by moving pieces on a graphical chessboard. You can even set up a PGN viewer as a helper application in your browser, so that you can play through the games online. My own favorite PGN viewer for Windows is a shareware package called CHESSBD/SLICS by Don Fong. Chessbd is available from Don Fong's homepage at http://www.dfong.com/chessbd/. The chessboard graphics on this page were captured from CHESSBD, and are shown by permission. (Piece designs are Copyright 1996, Don Fong, all rights reserved.) There are other PGN viewers available for other computer systems: check with the admins at one of the online chess clubs, or check one of the shareware archives for more information.
If you feel up to dealing with more complex software, Chessbase offers a free "light" version of their excellent chess database which can also be used as a PGN reader. This version will also let you store up to 8,000 games in its database. Chessbase Light official page. This software does take more disk space than a simple PGN reader, though.
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Tournament Players
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1996-2005 J. Duif Calvin, California.
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