Understanding chess notation: reading and writing a game

Knowing how to read and write chess notation opens three doors at once: following a video lesson without getting lost, reading a chess book (even an old or foreign one), and correctly recording your own games in tournaments, where it's often mandatory. This guide covers all of it, from the simplest to the rarest.

Squares: the basis for everything

Every square on the board has a unique name: a letter from a to h for the file, a number from 1 to 8 for the rank. Square a1 is always at White's bottom-left corner, h8 always at the top-right. This reference never changes, whatever the physical orientation of the board.

Notating a simple move

Each move is written as the piece that's moving (nothing for a pawn, N for knight, B for bishop, R for rook, Q for queen, K for king) followed by the destination square. "e4" means a pawn advances to e4; "Nf3" means the knight moves to f3. No letter indicates the starting square in the general case: it's inferred from the position.

Did you know?

In French books and software, piece letters differ: C for knight ("Cavalier"), F for bishop ("Fou"), T for rook ("Tour"), D for queen ("Dame"), R for king ("Roi"). "Cf3" in French is exactly "Nf3" in English: same square, same move.

Captures

A capture is marked with an "x" between the piece and the destination square: "Nxe5" means the knight captures whatever sits on e5. Classic trap for pawns: they're notated by their starting file, never by a "P". A pawn on the e-file capturing on d5 is written "exd5", never "ed5" or "Pxd5".

Castling

Castling has its own notation, independent of squares: "O-O" for kingside castling, "O-O-O" for queenside castling. The starting or ending square of the king or rook is never written in this specific case.

Promotion

When a pawn reaches the last rank, its destination square is written followed by an "=" sign and the chosen piece: "e8=Q" means the pawn arrives on e8 and turns into a queen. A pawn can promote into a queen, rook, bishop, or knight, never into a king or a second pawn.

En passant, a special case

An en passant capture is notated like any pawn capture, giving the starting file and the actual destination square (not the square of the captured pawn): "exd6" for example. Some players add "e.p." in parentheses to remove any ambiguity, though it isn't required. How this rule works is covered in detail in another article.

Check, checkmate... and stalemate

• ✓+ : check
• ✓# : checkmate, the end of the game
• ✓++ : occasionally used for double check by some sources, but + remains the standard

A trap worth knowing: stalemate, which ends the game in a draw, has no symbol of its own. The move that causes a stalemate is notated normally, with no + or #, which can be surprising the first time you spot it in an annotated game.

When to specify the starting square

If two identical pieces can reach the same square, the starting file is added for clarity (for example "Nbd4" for the knight from the b-file). If both pieces share the same file, the starting rank is used instead (for example "N1d4"). In the rare cases where neither the file nor the rank is enough, the full starting square is given.

Evaluating a move

• ✓! : good move, !! : brilliant move
• ✓? : mistake, ?? : blunder
• ✓!? : interesting but questionable move
• ✓?! : dubious move, without being an outright mistake

These symbols carry no official weight during the game: they're added afterward, by a commentator or a player analyzing the game, never by the players while they're actually playing.

Numbering moves correctly

A full move pairs White's turn with Black's under the same number: "1. e4 e5" means White played e4 and Black answered e5, on the very first move of the game. When only Black's move is shown on its own, for example in a book commenting a game starting at move 12, three dots are used: "12... Rxd4" means this is Black's twelfth move being shown, without repeating White's.

PGN: the universal format for software

PGN ("Portable Game Notation") is the standard file format used by nearly every chess program and website, including Lichess and Chess.com, to record a complete game. It's nothing more than a sequence of moves in algebraic notation, with a few header details (players, date, result). It's the format you get when exporting a game, and the one you can paste into any software to replay it.

Notations you might encounter in older books

Standard algebraic notation, the one used throughout this article, has been the norm everywhere since the 1980s. But some older books, especially in English, still use descriptive notation, where each square has a different name depending on whether you're looking from White's side or Black's (for example "P-K4" for 1.e4). You might also come across long algebraic notation, which always spells out the starting square ("Ng1-f3" rather than "Nf3"). No need to learn them in depth, just recognize them so an old or translated book doesn't catch you off guard.

Notating correctly in competition

In official tournaments, recording the game on a scoresheet is mandatory for both players, as long as more than five minutes remain on the clock (without at least a 30-second increment per move). Each line on the sheet corresponds to a full move: the number, White's move, Black's move, exactly as in this article.

• ✓Always write the move down after playing it on the board, never before
• ✓If you make a mistake, cross it out cleanly without fully erasing it: the sheet must stay legible in case of a dispute
• ✓Under the last five minutes without an increment, a player may legally stop notating
• ✓The scoresheet also serves as proof when claiming a draw by repetition or the 50-move rule, both covered in another article
• ✓The arbiter can ask to see the scoresheet at any point during the game

A universal language

This algebraic notation reads exactly the same in France, Japan, or Brazil (only piece names change between languages, but e4 always stays e4). It's what lets you follow a video lesson or replay champions' games, regardless of language.

Key takeaways

• ✓Every square has a unique name: file (a-h) then rank (1-8)
• ✓A move = piece (nothing for a pawn) + destination square; a capture adds an "x"
• ✓Castling: O-O or O-O-O; promotion: destination square + "=" + chosen piece
• ✓Stalemate carries no symbol, unlike check (+) and checkmate (#)
• ✓In competition, notating every move on the scoresheet is mandatory beyond 5 minutes remaining