Tool to display / translate a Forsyth-Edwards notation (FEN) of a chess game. The line notation FEN allows to describe any position of a chess game.
Forsyth-Edwards Notation - dCode
Tag(s) : Notation System, Board Games
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Forsyth-Edwards Notation
FEN Reader
Answers to Questions (FAQ)
What is FEN notation? (Definition)
Forsyth-Edwards notation (FEN) is a standardized representation of chess positions as a string. It describes the arrangement of the pieces on the board at a given time (a snapshot) as well as information relating to the game, whose turn it is, castlings etc.
How does FEN notation work?
The FEN notation is made up of six fields separated by spaces. These fields represent, in order: the arrangement of the pieces, the move, the castling possibilities, the possibility of taking en passant, the number of half-moves elapsed, and the move number.
FEN starts by encoding the content of the chessboard by rows from top to bottom (seen from the white side). The characters describing the parts are:
| K | White King | k | Black King |
| Q | White Queen | q | Black Queen |
| R | White Rook | r | Black Rook |
| B | White Bishop | b | Black Bishop |
| N | White Knight | n | Black Knight |
| P | White Pawn | p | Black Pawn |
| 1-8 | 1 to 8 empty boxes |
Example: The starting position of a chess board is: rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR
The chessboard description is completed with 5 informations:
| w or b | Indicates the next player (w = white, b = black) |
| KQkq | Indicates possible castling. K and / or Q for black castle respectively coded King or Queen and likewise k and / or q for the white castle, "-" if none |
| - or coordinate | Coordinates of a possible case of taking en passant |
| 0 to 50 | Number of moves since last catch |
| 1 to 999 | Move number |
Pawn promotion is represented by the piece to which the pawn is promoted.
FEN notation does not take into account position repetitions.
What does FEN stand for?
FEN is the acronym for Forsyth-Edwards Notation, named after David Forsyth, a Scottish journalist who invented this notation and Steven Edwards who adapted it to make it unambiguous and compatible with computers.
See also SAN notation
Source code
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Forsyth-Edwards Notation on dCode.fr [online website], retrieved on 2024-12-30,
