Chess notation records every move using a letter for the piece and the square it moves to — so Nf3 means a knight goes to the f3 square. Learn the eight file letters, the eight rank numbers, and six piece symbols, and you can read any chess book, follow any game online, and write down your own moves.
Notation looks like code at first, but it is simpler than it appears. Once you can name a single square, everything else falls into place. Here is the whole system from the ground up.
The Coordinate Grid
The board is labeled like a spreadsheet. Files (the columns) are lettered a to h from White’s left to right, and ranks (the rows) are numbered 1 to 8 starting from White’s side.
Every square has a unique name made of its file letter and rank number. The bottom-left square from White’s view is a1; the top-right is h8. White’s pieces start on ranks 1 and 2, Black’s on ranks 7 and 8.
To find any square, read across to the letter, then up to the number. The e4 square, for example, is four files across and four ranks up — right in the center, and White’s most popular first move. Practice by pointing to random squares and naming them, or by hearing a name and finding the square. This one skill underpins everything else in notation, so spend a few minutes on it before moving on.
Every square keeps its name for the whole game, no matter which pieces stand on it. That fixed labeling is what lets two players thousands of miles apart replay the exact same game from a written score.
Piece Symbols
Each piece gets a single capital letter, taken from its English name, with one exception.
| Piece | Symbol |
|---|---|
| King | K |
| Queen | Q |
| Rook | R |
| Bishop | B |
| Knight | N |
| Pawn | (no letter) |
The knight uses N because K is already taken by the king. The pawn has no symbol at all — a pawn move is written as just the destination square, so e4 means a pawn moves to e4.
These six symbols are standard worldwide in what is called algebraic notation. Older books sometimes use a wordier descriptive notation, but algebraic is what you will meet everywhere today.
Writing a Basic Move
A normal move is the piece letter plus the destination square. Follow these steps and you can notate any move.
- Write the piece’s symbol — for example
Nfor knight, or nothing for a pawn. - Add the square it moves to, such as
f3. - Combine them:
Nf3means "knight to f3," ande4means "pawn to e4." - Number the move pair, White then Black, like
1. e4 e5.
A full game is just a numbered list of these pairs. The move number counts both players’ turns, so 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 records four moves across two turns.
Captures, Check, and Checkmate
A few special symbols cover the rest of what happens in a game. They are quick to learn.
An "x" marks a capture. Bxe5 means "bishop captures the piece on e5." When a pawn captures, you write the file it left from, so a pawn on d-file capturing on e5 is dxe5.
A "+" marks check. Qh5+ means the queen moves to h5 and gives check. A "#" marks checkmate, so Qh7# means the queen delivers mate on h7 and the game is over.
These symbols stack onto a normal move. Nxf7+ reads as "knight captures on f7 with check," packing three pieces of information into five characters.
Write down your own games move by move. Reviewing your notation afterward is the fastest way to spot where you went wrong — you cannot learn from a game you did not record.
Castling and Promotion
Two special moves get their own notation. Kingside castling is written O-O, and queenside castling is O-O-O — two zeros or two capital O’s for the short side, three for the long side.
Promotion is written by adding an equals sign and the new piece to the pawn’s move. e8=Q means a pawn reaches e8 and promotes to a queen. If it captures on the way, you might see dxe8=Q+, a capturing promotion that also gives check.
These cover every legal move type. Between basic moves, captures, castling, promotion, check, and checkmate, there is nothing on the board you cannot write down.
Reading a Sample Game
Put the symbols together and a game becomes readable. Here is the famous Scholar’s Mate, a four-move checkmate:
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. Qh5 Nf6?? 4. Qxf7#
Reading it aloud: pawn to e4, pawn to e5; bishop to c4, knight to c6; queen to h5, knight to f6 — a blunder marked with ??; queen captures on f7, checkmate. Symbols like ? for a weak move and ! for a strong one are added by annotators, not part of the move itself.
Trace those moves on a real board and the notation stops being abstract. Each line of code corresponds to a picture you can see.
Why Notation Is Worth Learning
Notation is the written language of chess, and it opens the entire library of the game to you. Every opening guide, tactics puzzle, and grandmaster game ever played is recorded in it, which means that learning to read notation gives you access to centuries of accumulated chess knowledge. Nothing else you learn as a beginner pays off across so many other skills.
Recording your own games lets you review them later, find your mistakes, and track your improvement — something impossible if the moves vanish the moment you make them. Tournament play often requires you to keep score by hand for exactly this reason.
Start by naming squares out loud during casual games, then write down a few full games. Within a week the letters and numbers will feel as natural as reading, and the whole recorded history of chess opens up to you. From there you can study any position from a book, follow a live broadcast move by move, and share your own games with a coach or friend for feedback.