Chess notation: how to read and write moves

Chess notation looks like code and takes about twenty minutes to learn. Every square has a name (file letter, rank number: e4, f7), every piece has a letter except the pawn, and a move is just the piece plus where it went. The extras are few: x for a capture, + for check, # for checkmate, O-O for castling, =Q for promotion. Once you can read it you can read any book, follow any game and write your own on a scoresheet, which tournaments require. The pages below cover each symbol on its own, the two cases that confuse people (two knights that can reach the same square, and pawn captures), and the two file formats, PGN and FEN, you will meet the moment you use a chess app.

1. How to read chess notation

   Every square has a name (file letter plus rank number: e4, f7), every piece has a capital letter except the pawn, and a move is that letter plus the square the piece lands on: Nf3, Bc4, Qh5.

2. How to write chess moves on a scoresheet

   One numbered line per pair of moves: the number, White's move, then Black's move, both in algebraic notation, on both players' sheets.

3. Chess notation symbols explained

   Chess symbols fall into three groups: marks that are part of the move (x capture, + check, # mate, O-O castling, =Q promotion, e.

4. What does x mean in chess notation?

   x means capture.

5. What does + mean in chess notation?

   + means check.

6. What does # mean in chess?

   # means checkmate.

7. What does O-O mean in chess?

   O-O means castling on the king's side: the king goes from e1 to g1 (e8 to g8 for Black) and the rook from h1 to f1, all as one move on one line of the scoresheet.

8. What does e.p. mean in chess?

   e.

9. How are the squares named on a chessboard?

   A square's name is its file letter (a to h, running left to right from White's side) followed by its rank number (1 to 8, counting up from White's edge): a1, e4, f7, h8.

10. How do you write a pawn move in notation?

    Write the square the pawn arrives on and nothing else: e4, d5, h3.

11. Nbd2, R1e2: how to tell two pieces apart

    When two identical pieces can legally reach the same square, the move gains one extra character: the file the piece started on, so Nbd2 is the knight from b1 rather than the one on f3.

12. What is PGN in chess?

    PGN stands for Portable Game Notation.

13. What is FEN in chess?

    FEN, Forsyth-Edwards Notation, packs a whole position into one line of text with six fields: where the pieces are (rank 8 first, capitals for White), whose turn it is, what castling is still allowed, the en passant square, how many moves since the last capture or pawn move, and the move number.

14. What is descriptive notation?

    Descriptive notation is the system English chess books used until about 1980: 1.