30
votes
Accepted
Two knights can move to e7, but the move is only specified as Ne7
The c6 knight is pinned by the bishop on b5. Note that if the c6 knight were to move it would leave Black's king in check, which renders any such move illegal.
Therefore it is ok in this case to ...
- 7,988
26
votes
Accepted
What does "bxa1=Q" mean?
I would read it as "Pawn takes something on a1 and promotes to a Queen".
Strictly according to the Laws of Chess the = sign should not be there (see article C.11).
C.11
In the case of the ...
- 1,169
23
votes
Accepted
Ambiguity in notation resolved by +
Would it be sufficient here to write Ne4+ (meaning Nce4) only (i.e.
without the "c" but with "+"), as Nfe4 would not be check?
It depends on exactly what you mean by "sufficient". By "normal" ...
- 94.5k
22
votes
Accepted
Why are players required to record the moves in World Championship Classical games?
To my understanding there are a few reasons to require the players to record the moves. However, I believe that most of them could also be solved with a sufficient technological investment.
Tradition:...
21
votes
Why do I need to notate the file when capturing with a pawn?
You seem to want the notation to be as efficient as possible, disregarding ease of use. Let's take this to extremes:
If White only has a single move or capture that ends on c4, then instead of Bc4 or ...
- 905
20
votes
Why is offering draw not recorded but giving a check recorded?
Both recording checks and draw offers are personal preference, and neither is required in your notation.
I actually do record both checks as "+" or "++", and draw offers as "(d)". I know I am not the ...
- 32.4k
20
votes
Accepted
Why is offering draw not recorded but giving a check recorded?
According to the FIDE Laws of Chess:
Appendix C. Algebraic notation
C.12 The offer of a draw shall be marked as (=)
As with a number of the laws regarding recording of the moves this is not ...
- 94.5k
20
votes
Accepted
What is the algebraic notation for the bishop?
The expression I used is bc3
Lowercase letters ALWAYS refer to pawns/files. Uppercase ALWAYS refers to pieces. You need to use Bxc3 for "Bishop at d2"xc3.
- 94.5k
18
votes
Accepted
Is "Rdxd2" algebraic chess notation valid?
If you have two rooks, standing on different files (one of them on the d-file), that could capture on d2, then Rdxd2 is the correct notation.
If you have two rooks on the d-file, and both can take on ...
- 8,996
18
votes
Ambiguity in notation resolved by +
The FIDE Laws of Chess 2018 are unambiguous: you should write Nce4, and the + sign is optional and not disambiguating. Ne4+ is not sufficient.
Appendix C (algebraic notation), article C.10 basically ...
- 4,980
18
votes
Accepted
Why do I need to notate the file when capturing with a pawn?
There is no real reason, it's not technically necessary.
Equally, you don't generally have to write the 'x'. Knowing where the piece is going is enough to know that it's a capture.
People must have ...
- 27.7k
16
votes
Why are the symbols 0-0 and 0-0-0 used for castling in algebraic notation?
The castling notation was invented by Johann Allgaier and used for the first time in his 1811 2nd edition of his Neue theoretisch-praktische Anweisung zum Schachspiel.
He didn't explain why he came ...
- 694
16
votes
Accepted
How many times can the same pawn move be made in a game?
Eight is the maximum due to the geometry of the board. Only five of one side and three of the other can converge on the same single square.
Addendum: o@Red_Floyd2 on reddit found a faster way in 18.0 ...
- 17.1k
15
votes
Accepted
How is notation done for similar pieces capturing the same piece?
Your two knights are on d2 and f2.
Ndxe4, Nfxe4,
Your two knights are on f2 and f6.
N2xe4, N6xe4
Your three knights are on d2, f2 and f6 (you promoted a pawn)
Ndxe4, Nf2xe4, N6xe4
- 22.4k
14
votes
How can one easily learn chess board coordinates?
Some websites offer "coordinate drills". I'm not sure how effective they are for learning, but you can certainly give them a try. I found it to be surprisingly entertaining to try to beat my personal ...
- 10.5k
14
votes
How to correct reversed game notation?
Adding on to Brian Towers' answer, there is a quick way you can script this (assuming you are on Linux or another POSIX system with the tr command):
cat gamelog.txt | tr 'abcdefgh12345678' '...
- 241
14
votes
What does this algebraic notation expression mean?
The "x" means "captures". So, exd5 means the e pawn captures the piece on d5, which may be either a pawn or a more valuable piece.
If the piece doing the capturing is not a pawn ...
- 94.5k
14
votes
Accepted
Does move disambiguation happen before or after legality checking?
On the assumption that you are asking about PGN, the answer can be found in section 8.2.3.3 Basic SAN move construction in the PGN standard itself. Note that SAN, (i.e. Standard Algebraic Notation) ...
- 936
12
votes
Accepted
Unusual chess notation
That's descriptive notation. Click that to go to the wiki page.
It is an obsolete notation, having been replaced by algebraic or figurine algebraic notation.
B x KP means, Bishop (B) takes (x) Kings (...
- 19.9k
12
votes
Accepted
What happened in this game between Hong Li and Sandor Farago in the FSIM November 2018?
Best guess: the mistake occured before, on move 15
Entry errors are frequent when games are entered into a software, especially if they are not entered by one of the players.
Here the operator must ...
- 15.8k
11
votes
Accepted
How to correct reversed game notation?
If you set the board up correctly, i.e. "white on the right and queen on her own colour", then you need to flip the letters like this:
a ↔ h
b ↔ g
c ↔ f
d ↔ e
and the numbers like ...
- 94.5k
11
votes
Is there any other notation system other than algebraic notation?
Other than the algebraic nomenclature:
Two off the top of my head are
Correspondence chess used 1:1 to 8:8 to label the squares.
Descriptive notation predated algebraic: 1. P-K4 P-K4 2. KN-B3 QN-B3 ...
- 1,227
10
votes
Accepted
Help! I cannot understand this game’s notations!
Can anyone please explain to me what these symbols mean?
These are the abbreviations for the pieces in Dutch. I believe they are almost the same as the German ones (with the exception of the knight = ...
- 94.5k
9
votes
Accepted
What are some good resource to learn chess notation?
You could start just with the wikipedia page here for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_notation_(chess)
Also there were (at least - could be more) two lessons on the notation on chess....
- 420
9
votes
Accepted
What type of notation is "B3", as used by Lasker?
This is descriptive notation, a composition where the letter B stands for bishop and the number 3 for the third rank from either players view.
Thus, as mentioned in your box, B3 may refer to the ...
- 861
8
votes
What does the †† notation mean?
Well, after your update I come to the conclusion that these signs are used by the author to mark the omission of the notation of the respective move by White.
This is not a common usage of them, and ...
- 5,908
8
votes
Why are the symbols 0-0 and 0-0-0 used for castling in algebraic notation?
A notation like Kg1 would give the impression that only the king is moved. At the very least, it is not obvious that castling moves the rook as well.
- 24.8k
8
votes
Accepted
When are both the rank and file required for disambiguation of a move in PGN/SAN?
Yes, it's possible for a piece to need both the rank and file to distinguish it, although it's rare. For example:
[FEN "8/1k6/8/8/5Q2/8/3Q1QK1/8 w - - 0 1"]
1.Qf2e3
- 18.4k
8
votes
Why do I need to notate the file when capturing with a pawn?
Imagine a situation where there is also a white pawn on c4, for example 1. e4 d5 2. c4 e6 3.xd5. You would have no way of knowing which pawn took on d5, was it the one on e4 or the one on c4.
- 243
8
votes
Why do I need to notate the file when capturing with a pawn?
I'd suggest a different reason: to make it sound natural.
How would you pronounce Nxe5? I would say "knight takes e5". In that case, the putative pawn move "takes d5" would not ...
- 1,053
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