Understanding Chess Notation - You Should Write Down Your Moves!
(This section is under construction...VERY MUCH under construction, as you can see if you try to make heads or tails of it at this moment.)
The thing to know first about writing down chess moves is the aim is to write as little as possible. Everything that can be implied is implied. SEE THE LETTERS (referring to files) and NUMBERS (referring to rows) on the diagram above.
Here are the moves to the four-move Fool's Mate, the shortest possible chess game:
1. f3 e6
2. g4?? Qh4#
What the heck? I think I see four squares mentioned, but only one piece! And what's with the question marks? And that pound sign? Here's how you'd read that.
"White, who always moves first, moved the pawn on f2 to f3.
Black moved the only Black pawn that could move to e6, to e6. (This was the pawn that started on e7.)
White then (foolishly) moved the only White pawn that could move to g4, to g4. (This was the pawn that started on g2.)
Black moved his Queen from d8 to h4, which is Checkmate."
How can all that dialog be communicated by 11 or 12 characters?
1. No matter how the board is placed on the table, all moves are viewed--and written down--from White's perspective (i.e. The a1 and h1 squares have a White Rook in the starting position, and the a8 and h8 squares have the Black Rooks.) This makes writing down moves a bit tricky if you're playing Black. Even trickier if you're playing black and the board is backward. Wait…how can the board be backward? As long as "the right square is the white square" how can that be backward? If there are no coordinate letters and numbers on the sides of the board, OR if neither of you are writing down moves, then there is no backward. But if one of you IS writing moves, and White's Rooks start on a8 & h8? That board is backward because to write moves down correctly the White pieces start on rows 1 & 2, while Black's start on rows 7 & 8.)
- Actual moves are boldfaced. Other comments and analysis are not bold.
- Pieces are represented by Their Capitalized First Letter except Knights which are represented by N to avoid confusion since K is for King.
- Pawns (which are not technically pieces, fyi) are represented by the file they are on. At the start of the game, there is only one pawn that could move to the f3 square, so we just write"f3" and since there is no capital letter we know it's a pawn, so we move the only pawn that can move to f3, to f3.
What if there was a Knight on b3. Either the a pawn or the c pawn could take it. How do you write that? If the a pawn takes, you'd write 1. axb3. If the c pawn takes it's 1. cxb3.
- x means captures. "Nxe8" means "the only Knight that could move to e8, does so and captures whatever's there." NOTE: If there are two Knights that could capture on e8, say one on d6 and the other on c7, you'd specify which Knight. "Ndxe8" means "The Knight on the d file captures on e8." Or, in this case you also could have written "N6xd8" which means "The Knight on the 6th rank captures on e8." If it had been the c7 Knight you could have written "Ncxe8" or "N7xe8"
- One period after a move number means that was White's move. Three periods means that was Black's move.
1. f3 that was White's first move. Colors are capitalized.
1...e6 was Black's. The only reason I separated them was because I commented on White's move.
O-O means "castled Kingside." (Those are capital "Os" not zeros.)
O-O-O means "castled Queenside."
? = Questionable move
?? = Blunder. (In our "non-Grandmaster" universe, a Blunder is a move that costs you at least the value of a Knight or Bishop. If a Grandmaster went down a pawn he'd feel like he'd blundered, surely.)
??? = This is my own notation for a move that costs you the game, though I didn't use it in the example above because it's non-standard.
! = strong move
!! = brilliant move
?! = weird or risky move. I use this notation if I make a move where I'm saying to myself -- or even out loud -- "OK, let's see where this goes," or ""OK, let's have some fun here."
+ = check
++ = double check. Not common, but it *is* possible. If a piece moves creating a revealed/discovered check, while also giving check itself, the opposing King is checked by two pieces. FOR INSTANCE: Let's say Black's King is on e8 and White's Rook is on e5 and White's Bishop is on e6. If White then moves 1.Bd7++ the Black King is now checked by both the Bishop and the Rook. (NOTE: Some players use ++ to indicate checkmate, though the pound sign, as I used it above, is more standard.)
John Smith - Mary Jones. The first player listed played White. This means John Smith played the White pieces and Mary Jones played Black.
1-0 means White won that game.
0-1 means Black won.
1/2 - 1/2 means a draw or stalemate.
A00, or D01. You will sometimes see codes like this that refer to the opening that was played. I never use these codes since I just write "Sicilian Defense" or "Ruy Lopez Opening."
Speaking of which:
"Openings" are systems/moves that White makes
"Defenses" are systems/moves made by Black.
(This section is under construction...VERY MUCH under construction, as you can see if you try to make heads or tails of it at this moment.)
The thing to know first about writing down chess moves is the aim is to write as little as possible. Everything that can be implied is implied. SEE THE LETTERS (referring to files) and NUMBERS (referring to rows) on the diagram above.
Here are the moves to the four-move Fool's Mate, the shortest possible chess game:
1. f3 e6
2. g4?? Qh4#
What the heck? I think I see four squares mentioned, but only one piece! And what's with the question marks? And that pound sign? Here's how you'd read that.
"White, who always moves first, moved the pawn on f2 to f3.
Black moved the only Black pawn that could move to e6, to e6. (This was the pawn that started on e7.)
White then (foolishly) moved the only White pawn that could move to g4, to g4. (This was the pawn that started on g2.)
Black moved his Queen from d8 to h4, which is Checkmate."
How can all that dialog be communicated by 11 or 12 characters?
1. No matter how the board is placed on the table, all moves are viewed--and written down--from White's perspective (i.e. The a1 and h1 squares have a White Rook in the starting position, and the a8 and h8 squares have the Black Rooks.) This makes writing down moves a bit tricky if you're playing Black. Even trickier if you're playing black and the board is backward. Wait…how can the board be backward? As long as "the right square is the white square" how can that be backward? If there are no coordinate letters and numbers on the sides of the board, OR if neither of you are writing down moves, then there is no backward. But if one of you IS writing moves, and White's Rooks start on a8 & h8? That board is backward because to write moves down correctly the White pieces start on rows 1 & 2, while Black's start on rows 7 & 8.)
- Actual moves are boldfaced. Other comments and analysis are not bold.
- Pieces are represented by Their Capitalized First Letter except Knights which are represented by N to avoid confusion since K is for King.
- Pawns (which are not technically pieces, fyi) are represented by the file they are on. At the start of the game, there is only one pawn that could move to the f3 square, so we just write"f3" and since there is no capital letter we know it's a pawn, so we move the only pawn that can move to f3, to f3.
What if there was a Knight on b3. Either the a pawn or the c pawn could take it. How do you write that? If the a pawn takes, you'd write 1. axb3. If the c pawn takes it's 1. cxb3.
- x means captures. "Nxe8" means "the only Knight that could move to e8, does so and captures whatever's there." NOTE: If there are two Knights that could capture on e8, say one on d6 and the other on c7, you'd specify which Knight. "Ndxe8" means "The Knight on the d file captures on e8." Or, in this case you also could have written "N6xd8" which means "The Knight on the 6th rank captures on e8." If it had been the c7 Knight you could have written "Ncxe8" or "N7xe8"
- One period after a move number means that was White's move. Three periods means that was Black's move.
1. f3 that was White's first move. Colors are capitalized.
1...e6 was Black's. The only reason I separated them was because I commented on White's move.
O-O means "castled Kingside." (Those are capital "Os" not zeros.)
O-O-O means "castled Queenside."
? = Questionable move
?? = Blunder. (In our "non-Grandmaster" universe, a Blunder is a move that costs you at least the value of a Knight or Bishop. If a Grandmaster went down a pawn he'd feel like he'd blundered, surely.)
??? = This is my own notation for a move that costs you the game, though I didn't use it in the example above because it's non-standard.
! = strong move
!! = brilliant move
?! = weird or risky move. I use this notation if I make a move where I'm saying to myself -- or even out loud -- "OK, let's see where this goes," or ""OK, let's have some fun here."
+ = check
++ = double check. Not common, but it *is* possible. If a piece moves creating a revealed/discovered check, while also giving check itself, the opposing King is checked by two pieces. FOR INSTANCE: Let's say Black's King is on e8 and White's Rook is on e5 and White's Bishop is on e6. If White then moves 1.Bd7++ the Black King is now checked by both the Bishop and the Rook. (NOTE: Some players use ++ to indicate checkmate, though the pound sign, as I used it above, is more standard.)
John Smith - Mary Jones. The first player listed played White. This means John Smith played the White pieces and Mary Jones played Black.
1-0 means White won that game.
0-1 means Black won.
1/2 - 1/2 means a draw or stalemate.
A00, or D01. You will sometimes see codes like this that refer to the opening that was played. I never use these codes since I just write "Sicilian Defense" or "Ruy Lopez Opening."
Speaking of which:
"Openings" are systems/moves that White makes
"Defenses" are systems/moves made by Black.