Chess Notation for Absolute Beginners

Chess notation is the written shorthand chess players use to record moves. Every tournament game, every chess book, every database, every chess website uses it. The modern system is called algebraic notation and it works the same way in every language. Learn it once and you can read chess from any country.

Notation is a language with one purpose: to describe a single chess move precisely enough that anyone reading it can play that move on a board. It is not hard. It just looks intimidating until you know the rules.

A chess board has 64 squares — eight columns and eight rows. Each square has a unique two-character name.

• Files (columns) are labelled a through h from White's left to right.
• Ranks (rows) are numbered 1 through 8 from White's side (closest to White) to Black's side.

A square's name is its file letter followed by its rank number. White's king starts on e1; Black's king starts on e8; the square in the bottom-left corner from White's view is always a1.

The full coordinate system is covered in Chess Square Coordinates.

Each piece has a single capital letter:

Knight is N because K is already used for King. Pawns are written with no letter — when you see a move with no piece letter, it's a pawn.

A move is the piece letter followed by the destination square. That's the whole rule.

• e4 = pawn moves to e4 (no letter = pawn).
• Nf3 = knight moves to f3.
• Bc4 = bishop moves to c4.
• Qd2 = queen moves to d2.
• Ke2 = king moves to e2.

Six symbols handle every other situation:

• x means capture. Nxf3 = knight captures on f3. For a pawn capture, write the file the pawn came from: exd5.
• + means check. Qh5+ = queen to h5, with check.
• # means checkmate. Qh7# = queen to h7, checkmate. Game over.
• O-O means kingside castling. O-O-O means queenside castling. Two or three capital O's, never zeroes.
• = means promotion. e8=Q = pawn reaches e8 and becomes a queen.
• !, ?, and friends are commentary, not part of the move. See the full symbol reference.

Games are written as numbered move pairs. White's move first, then Black's:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O

Read it left to right:

• 1. e4 e5 — White plays pawn to e4; Black replies with pawn to e5.
• 2. Nf3 Nc6 — White's knight goes to f3; Black's knight goes to c6.
• 3. Bb5 a6 — White's bishop to b5; Black plays pawn to a6.
• 4. Ba4 Nf6 — White's bishop retreats to a4; Black's knight to f6.
• 5. O-O — White castles kingside.

That's the opening of the Ruy Lopez, one of the oldest and most studied openings in chess. You just read it.

Reading this page got you the rules. Now you need fluency, and that only comes from drilling.

• The Square ID drill hardens your coordinate recognition. 10 minutes a day for a week.
• The Read & Play drill shows you a move in notation and asks you to play it. This is the exact skill you need to read chess books.
• The PGN Walkthrough drill steps through a famous game and lets you read the notation in real context.

For a realistic timeline, see How Long Does It Take to Learn Chess Notation?