Algebraic & Coordinate Notation Black a b c d e f g h ------------------------------------------------- 8 | a8 | b8 | c8 | d8 | e8 | f8 | g8 | h8 | 8 | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------- 7 | a7 | b7 | c7 | d7 | e7 | f7 | g7 | h7 | 7 | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------- 6 | a6 | b6 | c6 | d6 | e6 | f6 | g6 | h6 | 6 | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------- 5 | a5 | b5 | c5 | d5 | e5 | f5 | g5 | h5 | 5 | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------- 4 | a4 | b4 | c4 | d4 | e4 | f4 | g4 | h4 | 4 | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------- 3 | a3 | b3 | c3 | d3 | e3 | f3 | g3 | h3 | 3 | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------- 2 | a2 | b2 | c2 | d2 | e2 | f2 | g2 | h2 | 2 | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------- 1 | a1 | b1 | c1 | d1 | e1 | f1 | g1 | h1 | 1 | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------- a b c d e f g h White Coordinate notation simply uses the coordinates of the square the piece comes from, a dash, and the coordinates of the square the piece moved to. Example moves are E2-E4, E7-E5, etc. An "=" is used to indicate pawn promotion, i.e., E7-E8=Q. Everything is entered in caps. Castling is indicated by showing where the king moved (it is the only time it will move two spaces to either side). No distinction is made between a move and a capture. This system is used almost solely with computers, as it is easiest to program, because there is no possibility for ambiguous moves. Humans don't favor it much, however, as looking at the move on a scoresheet tells you nothing about what is going on in the game, and it is prone to being misread when replaying a game using its score. Algebraic notation uses the same names for squares as coordinate notation, but uses the piece names from descriptive notation, with one exception - a Pawn is given no designation. Instead, a Pawn is indicated by the absence of a piece letter. Piece letters belong in caps, square letters in lower case. This is important when differentiating a Bishop from a square on the b-file, for example. Unlike descriptive, no dash is used to indicate movement of a piece. So, moving a Knight from g1 to f3 would be written Nf3. A pawn moving to e4 would simply be "e4". An "x" is used to indicate a capture, just as in descriptive notation. To lessen the potential for ambiguity, however, the square the captured piece rests on is used instead of the name of the piece. So, a Knight capturing a Queen on d8 would be written Nxd8. A pawn capture is indicated by noting the letter of the file the pawn came from, and its arrival square upon completing the capture. For example, exd5 would indicate the pawn came from the e-file, and captured the piece on d5. Similarly, gxh7 would indicate a pawn on the g-file took the piece on h7. Ambiguities are resolved by indicating the rank or file the piece came from (whichever is unique - if both are unique, use the letter of the file). For example, Nbd7 would mean the Knight on the b-file moves to d7, and N4xd6 would mean the Knight on the 4th rank captures the piece on d6. Note this is much simpler than resolving ambiguities in descriptive notation. Check is indicated by a "+" after the move, such as Qg8+. Checkmate is indicated with two plusses, "++", such as Nf7++. Castling is indicated the same way as in descriptive notation, which is O-O for castling kingside (short), and O-O-O for castling queenside (long). En passant is indicated the same way as a normal Pawn capture. However, since the square the captured pawn stood on is not the same as the arrival square of the pawn making the capture (as it is in all other captures), one method had to be chosen over the other. Since algebraic notation and coordinate notation are closely related, it was decided to keep it the same, and use the _arrival square_ of the pawn, and not the square the captured pawn stood on. To further clarify that it is an en passant capture, "ep" is appended after the move. So, a pawn on e5 capturing the pawn on f5 that has just moved two squares forward would be written exf6ep. Pawn promotion uses the "=" sign like coordinate notation. A pawn on e7 being promoted to a Queen would be written e8=Q. Algebraic notation is now the "official" language of chess, both in the US and internationally. The only difference in other countries is that they have different names for the pieces, so the letters used to designate the pieces vary.