Algebraic Chess Notation: How to Read and Write Moves

Algebraic chess notation writes each move as the piece's capital letter followed by the square it moves to. Nf3 means a knight goes to f3, e4 (no letter) means a pawn goes to e4. A few symbols add the rest: x for a capture, + for check, # for checkmate, O-O and O-O-O for castling, =Q for a promotion.

That is the whole system. It is the standard in FIDE's Laws of Chess, and the one books, databases and chess sites use today. This guide takes each part in turn, then walks through a real 17-move game you can replay on the board from its notation, one move at a time.

How to read chess notation

The squares

Every move ends on a square, and every square has a fixed name: a file letter from a to h (left to right from White's side) and a rank number from 1 to 8 (from White's side up to Black's). White's pieces start on ranks 1 and 2, Black's on 7 and 8, and the names do not change when you sit on the black side. The chess coordinates guide covers the grid in detail; if you have to count from a corner to find f6, start there, because notation is read square by square.

The pieces

Each piece is a capital letter. The knight is N because K is taken by the king. Pawns have no letter: a move written as a bare square is a pawn move.

The letters are English. FIDE's rules let players record in their own language (a German scoresheet writes S for Springer, the knight), and many books print small piece figurines instead of letters. PGN files, the format chess sites and databases exchange games in, always use the English K, Q, R, B, N.

The move numbers

A move number covers one move by each side: 1. e4 e5 is White's first move then Black's. When a Black move is written alone, three dots replace White's: 9... b5 is Black's ninth move.

Chess notation symbols

Everything that is not a piece or a square is one of these. The x and the + are the ones you will meet in every game.

Pawn captures are the one place a pawn gets a letter: the file it left. exd5 is the e-pawn taking on d5. En passant is written the same way, as the square the capturing pawn lands on: after 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 d5, White can play 3. exd6, removing the pawn on d5. The "e.p." suffix is allowed but optional.

Promotion names the new piece after an equals sign: e8=Q, or exd8=Q+ when the pawn captures on d8 and the new queen gives check. Some older books drop the sign and write e8Q.

When two pieces can reach the same square

"Nd2" is ambiguous when both knights can go to d2, so the move adds what tells them apart, in this order of preference:

• The file the piece comes from. After 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6, the knights on b1 and f3 can both reach d2: the b1 knight going there is Nbd2.
• The rank, when both pieces stand on the same file. Rooks on e1 and e3 can both go to e2: the e1 rook going there is R1e2.
• Both file and rank, in the rare case where neither alone is enough (three queens on the board, after promotions): Qh4e1.

Only add it when it is needed: with one knight able to reach d2, the move is simply Nd2.

Annotation symbols: ! ? !! ??

Books and commentators add a judgement after the move. These are opinions about the move, not part of it: Nf3! and Nf3 are the same move.

Read a real game: the Opera Game, annotated

Paul Morphy played this game in 1858 at the Paris opera, against the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard consulting together. It is 17 moves long and uses nearly everything above: pawn moves, piece captures, checks, a disambiguated knight move, queenside castling and a checkmate.

Once it feels easy, press "Hide the pieces" and replay it with the board empty. Reading a move and seeing where it lands without the pieces in front of you is exactly what a blindfold game asks.

How to write chess notation

In a classical tournament game, both players write every move, theirs and their opponent's, on a scoresheet: one numbered line per move pair, White's move in the left column, Black's on the right. Four habits keep a scoresheet readable and within the rules:

• Write the piece letter as a capital and the file as a lowercase letter: Bb5, never bB5, so a bishop is never mistaken for the b-file.
• Add x, + and # as you go. They are not required for the move to be valid, but they make a game far easier to follow when you read it back.
• Write castling as O-O or 0-0, never as a king move (Kg1 is a different move).
• Write the move after you play it. FIDE's rules forbid writing it in advance, except when claiming a draw by repetition or by the 50-move rule, or when sealing a move to adjourn the game.

Online, the same notation is stored in PGN files, which is how games move between Lichess, Chess.com and databases. PGN uses the letter O for castling where FIDE's rules print zeros; the two mean the same.

Descriptive notation, the old system

Older English-language books use descriptive notation, which names files after the pieces that start on them and counts ranks from each player's own side. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 is written 1. P-K4 P-K4 2. N-KB3 N-QB3: pawn to king four, knight to king's bishop three. Because ranks are counted from each side, the same square has two names (White's K4 is Black's K5), which is why algebraic notation replaced it. To read an old book, translate the first few moves of a game into algebraic; the pattern sticks quickly.

Notation is the language of blindfold chess

With the board gone, notation is all that is left. In a blindfold game, players say "e4", "knight f3", "bishop takes f3" and hold the position in their heads; every move is a line of notation turned into a picture. Reading it fluently is what frees your attention for the game itself.

DarkSquares trains that step in order. The move sequences exercise reads the moves of a real game with no board and then asks where a piece stands; the famous games exercise has you replay classics from memory; and in a blindfold game against the computer you type your moves in algebraic notation with the pieces hidden. The visualization guide explains how to build the picture that goes with each move.

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