Chess Notation
Chess Notation
Chess Notation
Chess notation enables you to record your games for playback later. Replaying
your games with chess notation enables you to analyze your games so that you
can correct any mistakes you made and improve your chess play.
Learning how to read and write chess notations also enables you to read and play through
games of great players to learn and improve your own chess game. There is a wealth of
materials both in book and digital form allowing you to study the chess moves of great
chess players.
For example:
The white Pawn is on square f3 (the letter always comes before the number) and the
black King on square h5. Note that lower-case letters are used for coordinates, while
upper-case letters are used for chess piece abbreviation.
For an example above, the white Pawn moves to square e4; so its move is written simply
as e4.
Then the black Pawn moves to square e5; so its move is written as e5. Then, the white
Knight moves to square f3; so its move is written as Nf3.
Capturing (x)
In the next diagram, White is going to capture Black's pawn on d5. This move is called
exd5 (the Pawn from e file captures piece in square d5). When a "capture" is made, this
is indicated with an x.
En Passant (ep)
White just moved d4. Black's next move exd3(ep), called en passant (ep), captures
white's d4 pawn while moving his pawn to d3.
4. Reference
- Raphael Neff, “How to Read and Write Algebraic Chess Notation”
http://www.chesshouse.com/v/vspfiles/howto/algebraic-chess-notation.pdf