John rey raqueno

BSN-II

Chess Notation describes each move with the name of the pieces and the square to
which it is moved.
Each piece has its own letter abbreviation, except the pawn. If no piece is named, it’s
assumed to a pawn move, and Knight is “N” not “K”, which is King.
John rey raqueno
BSN-II

In the following diagram I made the first move pawn to e4. The name of this move is simply “e4”. (since
the pawn’s name is not written)

Here’s how this would appear on a scoresheet used in clubs and tournaments.
John rey raqueno
BSN-II

Now black has made a pawn move, written e5.

Next, White replied Nf3. Notice how the name of the piece is written as well as the
name of the square.
John rey raqueno
BSN-II

Now, we’re going to fast forward to some special moves. See in the next diagram how
white has made a special move called castling kingside. This move is written as 0-0.
If the King castles on the queenside (to the other direction on the chessboard) it would
be written as 0-0-0.
John rey raqueno
BSN-II

In the next diagram, White captures Black’s pawn on d5. This move is called exd5.
For “capture” write an “x”.
John rey raqueno
BSN-II

Next, White captures the Knight on c6 with the Bishop. This move is written as
Bxc6+. Notice the “+” sign. This represents “check” since Black’s King is now in
check.

White just moved his pawn to d4. Black’s next move exd3(ep), is a special move
called “en passant” capturing white’s d4 pawn in passing while moving his pawn to
d3 – as if the pawn had moved to d3.
John rey raqueno
BSN-II

After several more moves, Black captures White’s Bishop on c1 with dxc1=Q. That’s
about as complicated as it gets! This means pawn captures piece on c1 and promotes it
to a Queen. Black could promote it to any other piece he chooses, but Queen’s are
nearly always the best choice. In the rare game, a player has promoted the pawn to a
Knight with checkmate.
John rey raqueno
BSN-II

The next move is Raxc1. Note that either the rook on A1 OR F1 can capture the
queen. This means that the “a” must be included to indicate which rook was played.
John rey raqueno
BSN-II

In this next position, black makes a winning move, d4++, pawn to d4 CHECKMATE!
By now you may have guessed that this game was created for moves illustration. It’s
true, White has made some rather questionable moves.
John rey raqueno
BSN-II

That’s all you need to know about standard Algebraic Chess Notation!
You’ve learned the notation standards and how to indicate the special moves
check (+)
en passant (ep)
castling (0-0 or 0-0-0)
checkmate (++).

If you wish to take this a step further, you can learn about annotating a chess game, a
form of analysing the game in notation form so that others view the annotators
opinions of moves that were made.

Extra: Chess Annotation Symbols

You’ll find that once you can read and write chess notation, your world is opened to a
wide expanse of chess knowledge.

Diving into this will help you improve your game as a chess player and you’ll be able
to advance strides ahead of your friends.

In addition to writing the moves themselves, chess players will comment on the

strengths and weakness of chess moves with chess move annotation symbols.
John rey raqueno
BSN-II

These are some of the symbols you’ll see

… Black’s move
! Good move
!! Excellent move
? Bad move
?? Terrible move (blunder)
!? Interesting move
?! Dubious move