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1. Reading Chess Moves

Square names, piece letters, captures, check, mate, castling and promotion — the shorthand every chess move is written in.

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Introduction

Every explanation in this app, every puzzle solution and every line Knighty shows you is written in the same shorthand: e4, Nf3, Nxa4+. It takes one lesson to learn, and then you never need it explained again.

Lesson Content

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Every square has a name, and the name never changes. The eight columns are files, lettered a to h from White's left. The eight rows are ranks, numbered 1 to 8 starting at White's side. A square is its file letter and then its rank number, always in that order: the blue column is the e-file, the green row is the fourth rank, and the amber square where the two cross is e4.

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Each piece is one capital letter: K for the king on e1, Q for the queen on d1, R for the rooks on a1 and h1, B for the bishops on c1 and f1, and N for the knights on b1 and g1 — N, because K already belongs to the king. Pawns get no letter at all, which is how you spot a pawn move at a glance.

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2. e4

A pawn move is written as the square the pawn lands on, and nothing else. Push the pawn in front of the king two squares forward: it travels from e2 to e4, and the whole move is written e4.

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2. ..Nf3

Black has answered with a pawn to e5. Every move that is not a pawn move is its piece letter plus the square it arrives on. Bring the knight from g1 (amber) to f3 (green): N for the knight, f3 for the square — Nf3.

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Games are written in numbered pairs, White's move first: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 is exactly the three moves you have just seen. When only a Black move is quoted, three dots stand in for the White move that came before it, so 1. ..e5 means Black's reply on move one. That is why some of Knighty's lines start with dots.

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Two more marks and you can read almost anything. A capture puts an x in front of the square: the white knight on c3 (green) can take the black pawn on a4 (red), and that move is written Nxa4. A move that attacks the enemy king gets a + on the end, and from a4 the knight attacks the black king on c5 (amber) — so the move is written Nxa4+. Black has to answer the check, and White is a pawn up.

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4. Nxa4+

Play it: take the pawn on a4 with the knight. Nxa4+ — the x for the capture, the + for the check. Black must answer the check, and White is a pawn up.

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A + says the enemy king is attacked. A # says it is attacked with nothing to be done about it — checkmate, and the game is over on the spot. Here the white rook (green) slides along the eighth rank to h8. The black king on h6 (red) cannot take the rook and cannot block it; g5 and g7 are covered by the white king on f6, h5 and h7 by the rook itself, and the pawn on g6 is defended by that same king. The move is written Rh8#.

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5. Rh8#

Deliver it. Rh8# is checkmate: White wins, and the # is how the end of a game is written.

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Castling moves two pieces at once — the king two squares towards a rook, and that rook to the square the king stepped over — so it cannot be written as one letter and one square. It gets its own symbol instead: O-O when the king (amber) goes towards the rook on h1 (green), O-O-O when it goes towards the rook on a1 (blue). Two O's for the short side, three for the long side. White can play either one in this position.

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6. hxg8=Q#

The black rook on g8 has just taken with check, and one white move answers it three times over. A pawn capture names the file the pawn came from instead of a piece letter, so the pawn on h7 taking on g8 is hxg8. A pawn that reaches the far rank turns into a new piece and the notation says which, with =Q for a queen. And the new queen, defended by the bishop on e6, leaves the black king on h8 no square to run to: hxg8=Q# — capture, promotion and checkmate in one move.

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Which square is highlighted?

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White plays Nxa4+. What does that tell you, before you even look at the board?

Key Takeaways

  • A square is its file letter then its rank number: f7, never 7f.
  • K, Q, R, B and N name the pieces; a pawn move is just the square it lands on.
  • x is a capture, + is check, # is checkmate.
  • O-O is castling towards the h-file rook, O-O-O towards the a-file rook.
  • A pawn capture names its own file (hxg8) and a promotion names the new piece (=Q).

Summary

A written move is the piece's letter (nothing at all for a pawn), an x if it captures, the square it lands on, and then + for check or # for checkmate. Castling is O-O or O-O-O, and a promotion adds the new piece: =Q. Every lesson, puzzle and coach line in this app is written that way.

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