If you have ever stared at a string like 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 and wondered what it means, you are in the right place. 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.

This guide walks through the building blocks of algebraic notation with concrete examples, then covers the alternatives and the mistakes that trip up beginners.

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 pieces), 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-f3 or e2-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) or N-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 is the opening of a famous attacking line, 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 to Avoid

• Using zeros for castling. Castling is O-O with capital O's, not 0-0.
• Writing the wrong knight letter. Knights are N; K always means king.
• Forgetting the file on pawn captures. A pawn capture needs its origin file: exd5, not just xd5 or d5.
• Skipping disambiguation. If two pieces can reach a square, Nd2 is ambiguous; write Nbd2 or Nfd2.
• Dropping check and mate symbols. Adding + and # makes a scoresheet far easier to verify later.
• Mixing up files and ranks. Letters (a–h) are always files; numbers (1–8) are always ranks.

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?.

Turn Your Handwritten Moves Into a Digital Game

Knowing SAN makes recording games at the board easy, but typing a full scoresheet back into a computer afterward is tedious. ScanChess can do it for you: snap a photo of your handwritten scoresheet, and our AI reads the algebraic notation, converts it to clean SAN, flags any illegal or unclear moves, and produces a downloadable PGN you can replay or analyze. You can even photograph a board position to get its FEN.

Ready to skip the retyping? Try the ScanChess scanner with your free starter credits and turn your next scoresheet into a shareable PGN in seconds.