Chess Teaching

In order to record your own chess games or to replay the moves from other recorded games and lessons you have to understand the algebraic chess notation.

The squares of the chess board
First we have to identify each square of the chessboard with a unique coordinate. The files are labelled with the lowercase letters a through h, from the left of the player with the white pieces. In addition the ranks are numbered from 1 to 8. The result is that each square of the board is uniquely identified by its file letter and rank number, as shown for some example squares in the diagram.

The chess pieces
Apart from the pawns each type of piece is identified by an uppercase letter. This letter is language dependant, but English-speaking players use K for king, Q for queen, R for rook, B for bishop, and N for knight (since K is already used).

Long algebraic notation
Now the moves can be notated by indicating the moving piece followed by both the starting and ending position separated by a hyphen. When the piece makes a capture, an x is used instead of the hyphen.
Castling is indicated by the special notations O-O for kingside castling and O-O-O for queenside castling. A pawn promotion is followed by a letter to indicate the chosen piece.
If a move places the opponent’s king in check the notation “+” is added. Checkmate is indicated by a “#”. At the end of the game the game result is added (1-0, 0-1 or ½-½).

As an example the moves of the Fool’s Mate can be notated as:
1. f2-f3 e7-e5
2. g2-g4 Qd8-h4# 0-1

Short algebraic notation
In practice the long algebraic notation is only used by players learning the game and by some computer programs. Normally the short algebraic notation is used.
This is almost the same notation, but with the starting position and the hyphen left out.

But now some moves have to be disambiguated. If two (or more) identical pieces can move to the same square, the letter indicating the piece is followed by (in descending order of preference):

1. the file of departure if they differ
2. the rank of departure if the files are the same but the ranks differ
3. both the file and rank if neither alone uniquely defines the piece

The Fool’s Mate now can be notated as:

1.f3 e5 2.g4 Qh4# 0-1

An example (from a real game)
The following game has been played between two juniors and is used as an illustration of the short algebraic notation.

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.d3 Nf6 4.Nc3 O-O 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 d6 7.Nd5 Nbd7 8.a4 c6 9.Nc3 Qe8 10.Nge2 Nb6 11.Bxf6 gxf6 12.Bb3 Be6 13.Bxe6 Qxe6 14.Ng3 Kh7 15.Nf5 Rg8 16.h4 Rxg2 17.Qd2 Kg8 18.Qxh6 d5 19.O-O-O Rg6 20.Rhg1 1-0

The final position.

Tags: Chess.
Categories: Beginner, Chess lessons //