1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 is three moves of chess for each side, written in nine characters apiece. Chess notation is a compact way to record every move of a game so it can be replayed, studied, or shared. The system used almost everywhere today is algebraic notation, and its standard form is called SAN (Standard Algebraic Notation). Once you learn a handful of symbols, you can read any scoresheet, follow a published game, or write down your own moves at a tournament.
The building blocks come in order below: the grid, the piece letters, then captures, castling, check, promotion, en passant and disambiguation, with a worked example at the end.
The Coordinate Grid: Files and Ranks
Every square on the board has a unique name made of a letter and a number.
- Files are the eight vertical columns, labeled a through h, left to right from White's point of view.
- Ranks are the eight horizontal rows, numbered 1 through 8, starting from White's side.
So the square in White's bottom-left corner is a1, and the one in the top-right is h8. A pawn move to the e-file, fourth rank, is written simply as e4. This coordinate grid is the foundation of everything else in SAN.
Piece Letters
Each piece (except the pawn) is represented by a single uppercase letter. Pawns have no letter at all; you just write the destination square.
| Piece | Letter | Example move |
|---|---|---|
| King | K | Kf1 (king to f1) |
| Queen | Q | Qd2 (queen to d2) |
| Rook | R | Re1 (rook to e1) |
| Bishop | B | Bb5 (bishop to b5) |
| Knight | N | Nf3 (knight to f3) |
| Pawn | (none) | e4 (pawn to e4) |
Note that the knight uses N, not K, because K is reserved for the king. The format is always piece letter + destination square. For example, Nf3 means "a knight moves to f3," and Bb5 means "a bishop moves to b5."
Captures
When a piece captures something, you insert an x before the destination square.
Bxe5: a bishop captures the piece on e5.Qxe7: a queen captures on e7.
Pawn captures are slightly special. Because a pawn has no letter, you write the file it is leaving from, then the x, then the destination:
exd5: a pawn on the e-file captures on d5.cxb4: a pawn on the c-file captures on b4.
Castling
Castling has its own dedicated symbols, written with capital letter O (not zeros):
- Kingside castling:
O-O - Queenside castling:
O-O-O
An easy way to remember it: queenside castling moves the king farther, so it gets the longer notation with three O's.
Check, Checkmate, and Game Results
Two suffix symbols flag the most important events:
- Check is marked with a plus sign:
Qxe7+means the queen captures on e7 and gives check. - Checkmate is marked with a pound/hash sign:
Qh7#means checkmate.
At the end of a recorded game you will also see the result: 1-0 (White won), 0-1 (Black won), or 1/2-1/2 (draw).
Pawn Promotion
When a pawn reaches the far end of the board, it promotes. You write the move, then = and the letter of the new piece:
e8=Q: the pawn reaches e8 and becomes a queen.e8=Q#: same move, and it delivers checkmate.bxa1=N+: a pawn captures on a1, underpromotes to a knight, and gives check.
En Passant
En passant is a special pawn capture. It is written exactly like a normal pawn capture, using the destination square the capturing pawn lands on:
exd6: a white pawn on e5 captures a black pawn that just advanced to d5, landing on d6.
Some players add "e.p." for clarity, but it is optional and not part of strict SAN.
Disambiguation: When Two Pieces Can Reach the Same Square
Sometimes two identical pieces could both move to the same square. SAN resolves the ambiguity by adding just enough information about the starting square.
The rule is: add the file letter first; if that is not enough, add the rank number; only use both if neither alone is sufficient.
Nbd2: both knights could go to d2, so we name the knight on the b-file.R1e2: both rooks could go to e2 and they share a file, so we name the rook on rank 1.Qh4e1: in rare cases (often after promotions create extra queens), you need both the file and rank of the origin square.
SAN vs. Other Notation Systems
Algebraic notation is the modern standard, but you may run into older or longer styles.
- Standard Algebraic Notation (SAN): the concise form described above, e.g.,
Nf3,exd5,O-O. This is what FIDE recommends and what most software uses. - Long Algebraic Notation (LAN): spells out the origin and destination of every move with a separator, e.g.,
Ng1-f3ore2-e4. It is more verbose but leaves no ambiguity, which makes it handy for teaching. - Descriptive Notation: an older English-language system used in books before roughly the 1980s. Moves looked like
P-K4(pawn to king four) orN-KB3. You will only see it in vintage chess literature today.
For everyday play and digital records, SAN is the format you want.
A Worked Example
Here are the first five moves of a famous opening, the Ruy Lopez, written in SAN:
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O
Reading it move by move: White plays the pawn to e4, Black mirrors with e5; White develops the knight to f3, Black answers with a knight to c6; White's bishop goes to b5 (the Ruy Lopez), Black nudges it with a6; the bishop retreats to a4, Black develops a knight to f6, and White castles kingside. With practice, your eyes will read these as fluidly as words.
Common Mistakes
The errors that show up on real scoresheets are a short list: zeros instead of the letter O in castling, a missing file on pawn captures, an ambiguous knight move, and columns that drift out of sync. Common chess notation mistakes shows each one with a before-and-after fix.
If you want to dive deeper into recording games by hand, see How to Read a Chess Scoresheet and the official FIDE scoresheet rules. To understand the file format used to store games digitally, read What Is PGN?.
Notation Is Also What the Scanner Reads
Standard algebraic notation is the language a scoresheet scanner expects, so a sheet written in clean SAN is a sheet that reads well. ScanChess takes a photo of the handwritten page and returns those same SAN moves as a PGN, with every move replayed on a board to check it is legal.