Learning Chess: How to Read and Write Algebraic Notation

Whether you intend to take the game seriously or just play for fun, learning algebraic notation is required to get the most out of chess. Learning notation is necessary to play over the classic battles of past masters, understand the games covered in your favorite chess book or magazine, or record your own games in order to later analyze every move. In fact, learning how to read and record notation may be the single most important building block to understanding chess!

Luckily, learning chess notation is one of the easiest steps to take in your chess career. It takes just a few minutes to learn the basics, and after a little practice, algebraic notation will become second nature to you.

The Board and Squares

The chessboard is divided into 64 squares, with each square falling on one of eight ranks, as well as one of the eight files. Ranks are the horizontal rows of the chess board, and are numbered from one to eight. White’s pieces sit on the first rank, and his pawns on the second; black’s pawns begin on the seventh rank, and his pieces on the eight.

Files are the vertical columns on the board, and are labeled by the letters a through h. The queenside rooks begin on the a file, the queenside knights on the b file, and so on.

Since each square has a file and rank, each square also has its own unique identity. The white king begins the game on e1; the square in the upper left hand corner (from white’s perspective) is named a8.

To test yourself, figure out which square the black queen sits on at the beginning of the game. If you said d8, congratulations! You’re well on your way to understanding notation.

The Pieces

In algebraic notation, each piece is represented by a letter.

King = K
Queen = Q
Rook = R
Bishop = B
Knight = N

Note that knights are represented by N, to differentiate them from the kings. Also note that pawns are not represented by any letter.

Putting it All Together

Every move in a chess game is represented in algebraic notation by stating the piece that moved, along with the square it moved to. For instance, if you move your queen to the b3 square, you would record the move as Qb3. Pawn moves use no piece name, only the destination square; moving a pawn to e4 is simply recorded as e4.

Special Cases

When a move captures a piece, this is represented by writing a small x between the piece name and the destination square. For instance, if your knight takes a piece on c7, the move is recorded as Nxc7. When a pawn makes a capture, we identify the pawn by the file it came from. For instance, if a pawn on e4 takes a piece on f5, this move is recorded as exf5.

Another confusing situation can occur when two of the same piece – almost always knights or rooks – could have moved to the destination square. In these cases, you must also record where the piece came from. How you do this is a matter of preference; you can give the entire square the moved piece came from, or just the file or rank that differentiates it from the alternate piece. For instance, you may have rooks on a1 and h1, both of which can move to e1. Moving the rook from a1 to e1 can be recorded either as Rae1 or Ra1-e1. The most important thing is to make clear to yourself which piece moved.

If a move results in a check, we add a + to the end of the move; for instance, Bg6+. When a move results in checkmate, we add either ++ or # to the end of the move; Ra8++ or Ra8# both represent a rook delivering checkmate on a8.

Castling is represented in two different ways: 0-0 is for castling kingside (the short way), and 0-0-0 is used for castling queenside (or the long way).

Sample Game

Congratulations! You now know how to read and write chess notation, and a whole world of information is now available to you. If you want to practice reading notation, try playing the following short game out on your board. It should end with a checkmate for white. Moves are numbered in pairs, with black’s move following white’s move.

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. Qf3 Nc6 4. Qxf7#