
You indicate pawn moves with only the square name. Using “P” for pawn would be more consistent, but for some reason, we don’t… maybe to save ink. Pawns remain without a capitalized letter. “N” is the symbol for Knights because “K” stands for the king. In most cases, they are simply the first letter of the piece’s name. The abbreviations are fairly straightforward to remember. For more on how to setup a chess board, click here.Ĭhess notation also uses abbreviations for each soldier in the army, using capitalized letters. With this grid information, we have everything we need to give all 64 squares a unique identifier using one letter and one number to combine its up-down orientation and its left-right orientation, per the diagram below. The rank closest to the White player in the initial setup are “1” squares, the next rank the “2” squares and so on… to the rank closest to Black, which are “8” squares. Thus, every square gets a unique letter and number, in a grid formation.įrom left-to-right from White’s perspective, the squares are ordered alphabetically with letters from “a” through to “h”.įrom Black’s point of view, the squares are in reverse alphabetical order – Black’s left-most squares are “h” squares, and Black’s right-most squares are “a” squares.Įach square also gets a unique number, from “1” to “8”. The squares are named with a coordinate system.

Firstly, you must know how the chess board is constructed.

Let’s have a look at the concrete rules of chess notation. Showing how important learning notation is GM Susan Polgar starts her highly-acclaimed beginner’s chess course by covering this subject. You can’t learn from a teacher unless you speak their language, and chess notation has become the lingua franca of the Royal Game. Knowing algebraic chess notation will allow you to study the famous games of years gone by and it will also allow you to follow along in instructional lessons such as those offered by. Castling queenside is notated with “0-0-0”.

Castling kingside is written as “0-0”.When the opponent’s king is threatened by check, a “+” sign is added to the end of the notation.Capturing an enemy piece sees an “x” placed between the piece moved and the square the captured piece was upon.King = K, Queen = Q, Bishop = B, Knight = N, Rook = R, Pawn = no notation.Chess notation uses abbreviations for each piece, using capitalized letters.

Chess notation combines the chess piece moved with the new square it has moved to, on the chessboard.
