HEF Chess Club Chess Notation

Today, you’ll be learning how to do chess notation. Why is it important to learn this? 1. To get better. By understanding notation, you can record your own games for analysis later. Some chess software allows you to enter recorded games so it can point out mistakes where you could have played a stronger move. You can also use notation to play through experts’ recorded games for self-study. 2. Notation is required when playing in chess competitions or tournaments.

Chess piece abbreviations That’s right, the knight is abbreviated with “N” (because “K” is already used for the king). The abbreviation for the pawn is nothing; it’s blank. Weird, isn’t it?

How to write chess notation Each move is indicated by the piece and its destination square (where it’s going). The chessboard assigns letters to each column (a.k.a. file). So the leftmost column is the “a” file, the next column is the “b” file, etc. The chessboard assigns numbers to each row (a.k.a. rank). So the lowest row is rank “1”, the highest row is rank “8”, etc.

First example

White moves its king pawn (the pawn on the king file) two squares.

First, we note the piece that moved. Since it’s a pawn, the abbreviation for the pawn is nothing, so nothing is noted for the piece. Now, we note the destination square the piece moved to. In this case, it moved to E4. So this move would be noted as: ! 1.!

White! ! e4

Black

Couple more examples Now, let’s say Black moves its own king pawn two squares. White then moves its kingside knight. These moves would be noted as: ! White!! 1.! e4! ! 2.! Nf3

Black e5

Black’s pawn moved to e5, while White’s knight (abbreviated “N”) moved to f3.

Special situations Movement notations are pretty straightforward, right? Let’s take a look at some special situations and how you would note them. Castling In this example, White has decided to castle. The way to note a castle is: o-o (if it’s a kingside castle) or o-o-o (if it’s a queenside castle) This example is a kingside castle, so it would be noted o-o. Capturing How about when a piece captures another piece? Notation for capture is actually not much different than notation for movement. It’s piece x destination square. So, the only change is the addition of the “x” (which reads “takes”). In this example, the white pawn on e4 captures the black pawn on d5, noted as: exd5 (which reads: pawn on e file takes d5) The pawn’s abbreviation is nothing but we do note which file the capturing piece is coming from, so then we note e x (takes) d5. If instead the knight on c3 took the pawn, it would be noted Nxd5.

Check What about when the king is put in check? Since the white bishop takes the black knight on c6, it is recorded as Bxc6+. Note that check is noted as a plus sign. Alternatively, “ch” can be used instead of “+”, so it is also acceptable to write Bxc6 ch.

En passant If White moved its pawn to d4 (which would be noted as d4) and Black takes the pawn en passant, then Black’s move would be recorded as exd3 (ep). This means the pawn on the e file takes d3 (the destination square) en passant (abbreviated ep).

Pawn promotion What if a pawn reaches the 8th row and gets promoted? In the left example, the Black pawn eats the White bishop on the 8th row (thus being promoted) and chooses to become a queen. It would be noted as dxc1=Q. If the Black pawn didn’t take the White bishop but instead simply moved up to d1, it would be noted d1=Q. If White chose instead to promote to a knight, it would of course be noted instead as d1=N.

Two of the same pieces can capture opponent What if two of the same type of piece can eat the opponent? In the left example, the promoted Black pawn is now a queen but White can eat the queen with either rook. If White takes with the left rook, how do you note that? If the pieces are on the same row, then the column of the capturing piece is noted (in this case, Raxc1, meaning the Rook on the “a” file/column, not the Rook on the “f” file, captures c1. If the two capturing pieces are on the same file (column), then the row of the capturing piece is noted. Checkmate In the left example, Black moves its pawn up to d4, thus exposing its bishop on b7 to checkmate the White king. How is checkmate recorded? Either “++” or “mate” are acceptable. So in this example, d4++ or d4 mate can be recorded.

Annotations at the end of moves Sometimes the person doing notation will add “commentary” after a move, as follows: !! !!! ?! ??! !?! ?!!

good move excellent move bad move terrible move (blunder) interesting move questionable move