HOW TO READ AND WRITE ALGEBRAIC CHESS NOTATION

How do I write down my chess moves?

To write down your chess moves you must indicate first the PIECE and then the SQUARE it is moving
to.

Piece notation recap

To save you writing the full name there are letters used to denote each piece.

N is for Knight Q is for Queen B is for Bishop

K is for King R is for Rook The Pawn has no letter

Square reference recap

Files are the columns going up the board and are labelled a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h

Ranks are the rows that go across the board and are labelled 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

This gives everyone of the 64 squares on the board a grid style reference from A1 through to H8

Common move example at the start of a game

e4 … nf6 (white moves the pawn on the e file forward 2 spaces, black moves knight to f6)

Remember pawn moves have no piece symbol

Other Chess notation rules

Capture symbol x

When a piece is captured we place an “x” after the piece symbol but before the square reference

Examples

Rxf2 (Rook captures the piece on square f2)

Nxg3 (Knight captures the piece on square g3)

Check symbol +

When we place our opponent in check we add the symbol “+” after the piece and square reference

Examples

Bc7! (bishop moves to square c7 and places opponent in check)

Qxh8! (queen captures piece on square h8 and places opponent in check)

Checkmate symbol ++

One tricky rule to learn – identical pieces

This shouldn’t happen to often but when identical pieces can move to the same square, we have to
add some further information on what piece is being moved.

This is done by writing the file the piece is departing from. If these are the same then use the rank
the piece is departing from.

The extra information is placed after the piece symbol.

Castling symbol (we will go over castling in more detail next week)

Castling kingside is written as 0-0

Castling queenside is written as 0-0-0

Now En passant and pawn promotion notation is all that is left! But this will be something to learn
much later.

Why should I write down my chess moves?

Replay your best game over and over again

Study the great moves, weak moves and mistakes you and your opponent have made

Learn from mistakes

Answer chess puzzles in written form

When you are older most chess competitions require recording of moves

OPTIONAL HOMEWORK

Have a practice game with your friend / family and see if you can write down the first 10 moves from
each side on the chess score sheet given out in class.

Bring your chess score sheet (please ask if you didn’t get one) in to the lesson next week and the
best written examples / opening moves will be shown to the class as an example.

DON’T WORRY IF YOU MAKE MISTAKES WHEN WRITING MOVES DOWN - IT IS DIFFICULT AND
REQUIRES TIME AND PRACTICE TO MASTER