Why learn notation at all?
Notation is the language of chess. Without it you cannot record your own game, follow an opening book or analyse where you went wrong. At tournaments with longer time controls, writing the moves down is compulsory as well. The good news: you will learn it in half an hour.
The board: square coordinates
Every square has its own address, a letter and a number. The files (columns) run with letters from a to h, seen from left to right from White's corner. The ranks (rows) run with numbers from 1 to 8, from White towards Black.
So the bottom left square is a1 (always dark), and the top right is h8. At the start the white king stands on e1 and the black king on e8.
Piece symbols
In international (English) notation each piece is marked by a letter:
- K - king
- Q - queen
- R - rook
- B - bishop
- N - knight
The pawn has no letter: when you see only a square (e.g. e4), a pawn has moved there. Serbian notation uses different letters (K, D, T, L, S for king, queen, rook, bishop, knight), so it is worth recognising both if you read chess literature from this region.
Special symbols
- x - a capture (Bxc6 = bishop takes on c6)
- + - check
- # - checkmate
- O-O - short (kingside) castling
- O-O-O - long (queenside) castling
- e.p. - en passant, capturing a pawn "in passing"
- = - promotion: e8=Q means the pawn reaches the end and becomes a queen
When two identical pieces can go to the same square, we add the file or the rank for clarity (e.g. Rad1 - the rook on the a-file goes to d1).
Example: "scholar's mate" in notation
1. e4 e5
2. Bc4 Nc6
3. Qh5 Nf6??
4. Qxf7#
Read it like this: White played the pawn to e4, Black replied e5; White brought the bishop to c4, Black the knight to c6; the queen went to h5, the black knight to f6 (a mistake!), and the queen takes on f7 for mate.
That is all. Now take one of your own games and write it down: that is the fastest way to get all of this into your fingers.
Click every square the piece may move to, then press Check. Optional, but the best way to practise.