Your first tournament hands you a blank grid of boxes and expects you to fill it in while also playing chess. Do not worry — recording a game is a simple habit that quickly becomes automatic. A neatly completed scoresheet protects you in disputes, lets you replay and study the game afterward, and is required in most rated events.

This guide walks through every part of the sheet, top to bottom. For the reverse skill of decoding a finished sheet, see our companion guide on how to read a chess scoresheet.

Step 1: Fill In the Header First

Do this before the game starts, while your hands are steady and the clock is not running. The header identifies the game so an arbiter can find it later. Most sheets ask for:

• Event — the name of the tournament.
• Date — the day the game is played.
• Round — the round number.
• Board number — your table's number, posted on the pairing sheet.
• Player names — your name and your opponent's, each on the correct line.
• Color — which player had White and which had Black.

Filling the header in advance means you are not scrambling to remember details after a tense game, and it makes the sheet easy to match to the official pairings.

Step 2: Record Each Move in the Right Column

A scoresheet is a numbered table. Each numbered row is one full move — one turn for White and one turn for Black. Read and write each row left to right:

1. The move number (1, 2, 3, and so on).
2. White's move in the White column.
3. Black's reply in the Black column.

So if White opens with the king's pawn and Black mirrors it, row 1 reads 1. e4 e5. The single most common beginner mistake is putting a move in the wrong column, which shifts every move after it and makes the whole game hard to reconstruct. Always confirm: White's move goes left, Black's move goes right.

A few practical habits:

• Write each move right after it is played, before your opponent replies. It is far easier to keep up one move at a time than to catch up later from memory.
• Use standard algebraic notation (SAN). If the letters and symbols are new, our chess notation explained guide covers them from scratch.
• Include the symbols that matter: x for a capture, + for check, # for checkmate, O-O for kingside castling, and O-O-O for queenside. These small marks change the meaning of a move.
• Continue in the second block. Most sheets have two columns of rows side by side; finish the left block, then carry on at the top of the right block.

Write Legibly — It Really Matters

Legible writing is not just tidiness. If you need to claim a draw by threefold repetition or by the 50-move rule, the arbiter reads your scoresheet to verify the claim. A sloppy b that looks like a 6, or a smudged file letter, can cost you a valid claim or create a dispute you cannot win. Clear notation is your evidence.

There is a bonus, too: a legible sheet also scans better. When you later photograph it to digitize the game, clean handwriting means the software reads it accurately the first time.

Step 3: Record the Result

When the game ends, write the result in the boxes provided at the bottom. There are three standard codes:

• 1-0 — White won.
• 0-1 — Black won.
• ½-½ — the game was a draw.

These are scores: the winner gets 1 point, the loser 0, and each player gets half a point in a draw. Both players should record the same result on their own sheets.

Step 4: Sign the Scoresheet

After the result is written, both players sign. Your signatures confirm that you agree on the outcome — this is what makes the sheet official and prevents later arguments about who won. In many events you hand the completed, signed sheet (or a copy) to the arbiter. Do not pack up and leave the board before this step is done.

The Under-5-Minutes Exception

Here is the one rule that surprises new players. Under standard tournament rules, if you have fewer than five minutes left on your clock and no extra time is added per move, you are not required to keep writing moves during that time scramble. Survival comes first.

The key word is complete. Once you have time again — or at the end of the game — you are expected to go back and fill in the moves you missed so the sheet is a full record. A handy trick: glance at your opponent's sheet, since they may have kept recording, and reconstruct the gap together. The exception lets you stop writing temporarily; it does not let you leave the sheet permanently incomplete.

If you want the precise wording arbiters enforce around scorekeeping and time trouble, see our overview of FIDE scoresheet rules.

Tips for Legible Scoresheets

A few small habits keep your sheet clean and dispute-proof:

• Press firmly with a pen, not a faint pencil, so moves stay readable and do not smudge.
• Write one clear character at a time — distinguish your b (file) from 6 (rank), and 0/O from the letter o.
• Keep moves aligned in their boxes; do not let a long move spill into the neighboring column.
• Don't scribble corrections. If you make a mistake, draw a single clean line through it and rewrite the move clearly.
• Check captures and checks as you go, since these symbols are the easiest to drop under pressure.
• Use consistent capitalization for piece letters (N, B, R, Q, K) so a knight is never mistaken for a pawn move.

For a rundown of the slip-ups that trip up beginners most often, read common chess notation mistakes.

From Paper to Playable

Once your game is recorded, do not retype it move by move. ScanChess.com turns a photo of your handwritten scoresheet into clean algebraic notation, validates that every move is legal, flags anything that looks off, and hands you a downloadable PGN with an interactive replay. You can even photograph a board position to get its FEN. Snap your finished sheet with the board recognition scanner and watch your game come to life — and the more legible your sheet, the better it scans. Free starter credits let you try it on your very first game.