Tool for reading or writing chess notations, including most famous FEN or SAN formats can be used to transcribe the movements of a game of chess.
Chess Notations - dCode
Tag(s) : Notation System
dCode is free and its tools are a valuable help in games, maths, geocaching, puzzles and problems to solve every day!
A suggestion ? a feedback ? a bug ? an idea ? Write to dCode!
Chess Notations
FEN Reader
SAN/PGN Reader
UCI Square Coordinates Reader
International Notation Converter
Answers to Questions (FAQ)
What is a chess notation? (Definition)
A game of chess is a series of movements (moves) made by the players on the chessboard. In order to keep a history of a part, or to save a position, several notations, indicating the locations of the different parts and / or previous movements, are used.
How to note down chess moves?
Chess game moves are usually indicated with algebraic notation SAN (Standard Algebraic Notation), the official description system of the International Chess Federation. This system has an short version which is the most used. This is also the notation used in the PGN (Portable Game Notation) format.
The algebraic notation associates with each piece a letter:
| Piece | Notation |
|---|---|
| King | K |
| Queen | Q |
| Rook | R |
| Bishop | B |
| kNight | N |
| Pawn | nothing (or P) |
The principle of algebraic notation is to designate a move with the piece, its starting square and its destination cell. The 64 squares of the chessboard are marked with a coordinate system from the bottom left: the numbers 1 to 8 for the columns and the lowercase letters from a to h for the rows.
Example: The square at the bottom left is named a1, the square at the top left is called h1, the square at the bottom right is called a8 and the top right square is called h8
The abbreviated notation does not indicate the starting position because it is theoretically known.
Example: A move of a king from the 1st square of the 1st row (column 1 = a, row 1) to the 2nd square of the 2nd row (column 2 = b, row 2) is written Ka1-b2 or Kb2 in short version.
When the chess play is a move, a dash - is indicated between the 2 squares, if it is a catch, it is noted x. In abbreviated version, only the x is noted.
Example: e2-e3, abbreviated to e3, means: the pawn moves to e3
Example: e2xf3, abbreviated to xf3, means: the pawn takes the piece located in box f3
White start, a move number is usually indicated before each movement of a white piece, the black move is indicated after the white one.
Example: 1. e4 Cf6
2. d4 Nxe4
Finally, a position where the king is in check is noted +, and # for checkmate.
How to note down the position of a chessboard?
To describe, at a given moment, the position of all the pieces of a chessboard, the FEN notation (Forsyth-Edwards Notation) is the most used.
On a single line, the positions of all the pieces as well as the possible rooks, the stroke number or the color of the next turn are described.
The FEN notation of the pieces is:
| Piece | White | Piece | Black |
|---|---|---|---|
| K | King | k | King |
| Q | Queen | q | Queen |
| R | Rook | r | Rook |
| B | Bishop | b | Bishop |
| N | Knight | n | Knight |
| P | Pawn | p | Pawn |
| 1-8 | N empty boxes |
The initial position of a classical chess game is described:
Example: rnbqkbnr / pppppppp / 8/8/8/8 / PPPPPPPP / RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
| rnbqkbnr | Rook (black), Knight (black), Bishop (black), Queen (black), King (black), Bishop (black), Knight (black), Rook (black) |
| / | Line separator |
| pppppppp | 8 pawns (black) |
| 8 | 8 empty boxes |
| PPPPPPPP | 8 pawns (white) |
| RNBQKBNR | Rook (white), Knight (white), Bishop (white), Queen (white), King (white), Bishop (white), Knight (white), Rook (white) |
| w | White turn |
| KQkq | Castling (black) is possible king side (K) and queen site (Q) and the castle (white) is possible for king side (k) and queen side (q) |
| - | Possible square coordinated for a catch en passant |
| 0 | Number of moves since last catch |
| 1 | Move number |
Source code
dCode retains ownership of the "Chess Notations" source code. Except explicit open source licence (indicated Creative Commons / free), the "Chess Notations" algorithm, the applet or snippet (converter, solver, encryption / decryption, encoding / decoding, ciphering / deciphering, breaker, translator), or the "Chess Notations" functions (calculate, convert, solve, decrypt / encrypt, decipher / cipher, decode / encode, translate) written in any informatic language (Python, Java, PHP, C#, Javascript, Matlab, etc.) and all data download, script, or API access for "Chess Notations" are not public, same for offline use on PC, mobile, tablet, iPhone or Android app!
Reminder : dCode is free to use.
Cite dCode
The copy-paste of the page "Chess Notations" or any of its results, is allowed (even for commercial purposes) as long as you credit dCode!
Exporting results as a .csv or .txt file is free by clicking on the export icon
Cite as source (bibliography):
Chess Notations on dCode.fr [online website], retrieved on 2024-12-21,
