Questions tagged [notation]
Notation refers to any formalized method of recording chess games so they can be replayed and shared later. Common notations include algebraic, figurine algebraic, descriptive, and the digital PGN format. Descriptive notation is considered obsolete, though familiarity with it allows one to read older books that use it.
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What would the Best move for Black be in Algebraic Chess Notation?
What would the best move for black be in algebraic chess notation?
[Title "Black to play and win"]
[fen "7k/1p4p1/p4b1p/3N3P/2p5/2rb4/PP2r3/K2R2R1 b - - 0 1"]
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Does move disambiguation happen before or after legality checking?
I am wondering if disambiguation occurs before or after the legality of such moves has been established. Given this position:
[FEN "5k2/5n2/3R4/1n6/8/5Q2/8/4K3 b - - 0 1"]
Both knights are ...
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Why are players required to record the moves in World Championship Classical games?
I understand that in some lower-level games, if the players do not record the moves, nobody else will do it for them. But what is the point of requiring the players at World Championship classical ...
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Early recorded games (before 1600)
Do we have examples of recorded chess games from 1600 or before? A game where all the moves were written down. It would be interesting to see such a record.
This question was inspired by Was not ...
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Why do I need to notate the file when capturing with a pawn?
As we all know, in algebraic notation, we usually suppress the notation for pawns. That is, unless they are capturing something. Then, for some reason, we must notate the file of that pawn. For all ...
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Editing (end)-game: how to move few pieces in accordance with a book to follow the solution to a problem
What is the most easy way to follow a dozen of moves from a book ?
I would like to edit a particular position and then see what the solution
in a book (in my case "100 endgames you must know"...
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Why no notation for "Resigns" or "Lost on time"?
Suppose a chess game was decisive but didn't go to checkmate. Why does its notation not say whether the loser resigned or lost on time?
There are plenty of NAG symbols; even some ($136-$139) relating ...
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How does PGN indicate null moves?
How are null moves indicated in PGN which Lucas Chess will correctly interpret?
Context: I want to make PGN files of solution lines of series problems, in order to replay them in Lucas Chess. In ...
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What type of notation is "B3", as used by Lasker?
In Logical Chess: Move By Move by Irving Chernev (1957), in Game 3, it reads
Emanuel Lasker, World Champion for 27 years, says of this move, “In my practice I have usually found it strongest to post ...
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What do the dollar, plus, brackets and hash symbol indicate in chess moves notations?
I have a doubt about the notations of writing down moves. Also, all these examples are from real games in the database so I don't think the players were analyzing by trying out different moves etc. I ...
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Countermove without notation
Quoting the FIDE rules (E8.1§3):
"A player may reply to his opponent’s move before recording it, if he so wishes. He must
record his previous move before making another."
Quoting any arbiter:...
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Software with tabulated notation
I am looking for a software that allows tabulated notation.
Example:
Is there any software that allows notation in this way? I would prefer desktop application software.
In ChessBase I can't find an ...
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Questions about USCF Tournaments Requirements to Get the U.S. Chess Master Title [closed]
We want to organize USCF chess tournaments valid to get the U.S. chess master title. Please answer the following questions:
Do we need a minimum of 4 rounds, if we are organizing a swiss
system?
Do ...
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Do FIDE and USCF require Writing Notation in Tournaments with Short Time Controls? When Writing Notation is Optional?
Do FIDE and USCF require Writing Notation in Tournaments with Short Time Controls? When is Writing Notation Not Required?
We are planning to organize a monthly 30+30 tournament (30 minutes for the ...
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Single-line chess notation (Chessable) to tree-like notation (ChessBase)
Intro to problem
For those who are not familiar with it, Chessable contains high-quality content about "life-time repertories" of most of the main openings and defenses. However, the way ...
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What are some good resource to learn chess notation?
I want to learn Chess systematically from the beginning. Although, I have 700+ Elo on chess.com but I think, it is just a random play: sometimes luck and sometimes 4 moves checkmate (Bishop and Queen) ...
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How do I convert a move from coordinate notation to algebraic notation?
The following Python code gives the best move in coordinate notation:
import chess
import chess.engine
sfEngineTxt = "E:\Chess\Stockfish\stockfish_14_x64_modern"
sfEngine = chess.engine....
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Notation for ambiguous moves with three pieces or more
Given three knights that can move to d2, one on b1, one on b3 and one on f3, how would you notate knight on b3 moves to d2? N3d2 is ambiguous, so would it be correct to write Nb3d2? Presume that a ...
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How many unoriginal pawn moves can be made in a single game?
Consider an "unoriginal pawn move" to be a pawn move whose notation matches a move already played in the game. For instance, after 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.e5, there is one unoriginal pawn move, ...
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How many times can the same pawn move be made in a game?
How many times in a game can "the same pawn move" be made? By "the same pawn move", I mean, a move made by a pawn that would be notated the same way.
For instance, after 1.e4 e5 2....
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What is the algebraic notation for the bishop?
Let's say that I have a pawn at b2 and a bishop at d2 and I want to capture the pawn on c3 with my bishop. The expression I used is bc3. However, it uses my pawn at b2 to capture the pawn at c3. I ...
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What does this algebraic notation expression mean?
What does this algebraic notation expression mean?
exd5
There is no such notation as x. There is only a, b, c, d, e, f, g, and h. I don't know how this algebraic notation works.
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On Lichess, how do you promote to a rook with algebraic notation?
I am a blind chess player on Lichess. I came across a position in which I wanted to promote to a rook. I learned that you can promote by writing like this:
a8=n // promote the pawn at a8 to a knight.
...
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How do you write "castles" in algebraic?
Sorry if this question is a duplicate one, but I can't find the algebraic notation for castling. What is it?
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Is algebraic notation unique? [duplicate]
Can the same move be written two different ways that are both correct? In the following game when the black knight on g6 takes the pawn on e5, would it be "Ngxe5" or just "Nxe5" (...
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When are both the rank and file required for disambiguation of a move in PGN/SAN?
The PGN "Standard" (if you want to call it that, because it is very flawed and seems out of date), states:
First, if the moving pieces can be distinguished by their originating files, the ...
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Does practising Lichess coordinates help with reading chess books chess games faster?
Some strong players are able to read entire chess games from a book, as they are very familiar with the notation of the chessboard and theory.
For amateur online players, this can be a difficult task ...
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What if you messed up your notation a lot?
While playing in an OTB game where both players take notation, it's not uncommon for people to make a mistake here and there. Is there any rule regarding having a lot of mistakes? Furthermore, what if ...
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Chess problem by A. G. Kopnin - Russian notation explanation needed
[Title "Alexey Grigorievich Kopnin - mate in two - 1948"]
[FEN "nR1rB3/2PPPN2/bbk1N3/1p2p3/1p2P1nq/1K1Pp3/7B/8 w - - 0 1"]
(source)
In this problem, it’s white to move and mate in ...
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Blindfold chess games
Are blindfold chess games playable for chess world champions and grandmasters? Does the ability to do so show mastery for a player?
Blindfold chess is, without looking at board, the player will just ...
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Building up a dataset for image recognition of hand-written scoresheets
I am trying to build up a training dataset to train a convolutional neural network (well, the pipeline will probably be a little more complex, but probably a CNN will be at its core) to convert ...
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Is there any other notation system other than algebraic notation?
Other than the current coordinate notations used in chess, are there any other notations that anybody knows about? I am looking for anything that does not employ the coordinate system like naming all ...
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Two knights can move to e7, but the move is only specified as Ne7 [duplicate]
In the diagram below, Black makes the move denoted as “Ne7” which moves the black knight on g8 move to e7.
[StartFlipped "0"]
[FEN "r1bqkbnr/pp3ppp/2n1p3/1BPpP3/8/4B3/PPP2PPP/RN1QK1NR b ...
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Why are chess.com opening names and notations seemingly mismatched?
I often see something like the above when playing chess online. When I played Ruy Lopez and my opponent played Classical Variation, but I transposed us to Four Knights Game Spanish Variation, I had ...
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How to correct reversed game notation?
My son and I are rank chess amateurs, and we wanted to play our first "real" game where we keep track of moves to analyze later. We started the game but then realized that the board was reversed (i.e....
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Does FIDE or USCF allow ICCF type numerical notation instead of the so called algebraic?
ICCF uses pure numerical notation counting each square by row and column eg 11 to 88. So Pd4 often written just d4 - would be 2224 so there can never be any confusion should two pieces be able to ...
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Did any other language than English ever use Descriptive notation? Which languages have always used Algebraic?
Descriptive notation seems to be limited to certain languages like English, and I found a Wikipedia article that mentions Spanish and French.
I have never seen a Russian book that uses Descriptive, ...
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Are there studies showing that descriptive notation is easier to use for blindfold than algebraic notation?
What studies have compared effectiveness for thinking by chess players using descriptive vs algebraic notation?
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Why is offering draw not recorded but giving a check recorded?
In recording a game, one typically does not record offering draws (if yes, how and is it required?) while one does indicate that a particular move gives a check by using + (or ++ for double checks).
...
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Question on chess commentary in written form
I'm new to English chess notation and have never read or heard chess commentary in a broadcast or publication form.
I'm trying to decipher the following commentary
ICGA's footnote to caption:
ACM CCC,...
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What happened in this game between Hong Li and Sandor Farago in the FSIM November 2018?
I downloaded a bunch of games from Kingbase which included the below game.
[Event "FSIM November 2018"]
[Site "Budapest HUN"]
[Date "2018.11.06"]
[Round "4.4"]
[White "Farago, Sandor"]
[Black "Li, ...
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How many moves can be expressed with algebraic chess notation?
I am wanting to write a chess engine (see here: Creating chess engine, machine learning vs. traditional engine?). The first step I am doing is taking a position in as an FEN and converting this ...
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Ambiguity in notation resolved by +
In the board position both knights can move to e4. To distinguish which knight moved one would normally write Nce4 or Nfe4. However in this special situation only Nce4 is check.
Would it be ...
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Converting from Algebraic notation to Coordinate notation
I saw this thread: Converting square notation to algebraic notation programmatically
Unfortunately, it's the reverse of what I need to do.
Given a FEN and an Algebraic move, I need to generate the ...
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Why is the algebraic notation not just two numbers?
Instead of 'a1', why not '11'? First file, first rank.
Instead of 'g6', why not '76'? Seventh file, sixth rank.
And so on. Why not just use two numbers to represent the square, as opposed to 1 ...
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Help! I cannot understand this game’s notations!
I was surfing across Tim Krabbe’s website, as I usually do on occasion, and I found his article DE KOEWEITSE ONSTERFELIJKE," a very interesting tidbit. A game of 34 moves is mentioned in the last ...
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Is it possible to configure SCID to use English descriptive notation? [closed]
I'm going through a classic book (Reti's Modern Ideas in Chess), which uses English descriptive notation rather than algebraic notation. I see there is an online resource which has converted the book ...
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For white's next move, should it be recorded as Nge2 or Ne2 as there is only one knight which can legally move to e2?
[FEN "rnbq1rk1/ppp2ppp/4pn2/3p4/1bPP4/2NBP3/PP3PPP/R1BQK1NR w KQ - 0 6"]
If white move his king knight to e2 in the next move, should this move be recorded as Nge2 or Ne2 in the algebraic notation?
...
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How to disambiguate checking moves in descriptive notation?
Question: In general, is noting a check/checkmate sufficient to disambiguate moves in descriptive notation?
If for example two of the same type of piece could move to the same square, but one giving ...
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How to record these moves?
Suppose a complete hypothetical positions that white has 6 queens and they are at a1, a4, a7, g1, g4, g7, respectively. How to record the following move in the standard algebraic notation?
Moving the ...
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