The Everything Chess Basics Book (18 page)

xd7+
xd7 16. sb8+
xb8 17.
d8 checkmate.

The game you have just played through is presented in figurine algebraic notation.

Long and Short Forms

There are other forms of algebraic notation besides the forms you have just learned about. There is long form, where the square the piece or pawn comes from is recorded as well as the square it goes to, like this: 1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2. Ng1-f3 d7-d6 3. d2-d4 Bc8-g4 4. d4xe5 Bg4xf3, etc. Then there is short form, which dispenses with anything unnecessary. Even the capture sign is done away with, since playing over the game makes the capture obligatory anyway: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Bg4 4. de Bf3, etc.

English Descriptive Notation

In the old English descriptive notation the files are given the names of the pieces which occupy the first square on them in the original position. To distinguish the two sides of the board from one another (right vs. left), those pieces near the king are known as KR (king’s rook), KN (king’s knight), and KB (king’s bishop). Similarly, those nearest the queen are known as QR (queen’s rook), QN (queen’s knight), and QB (queen’s bishop).

Descriptive notation used to be popular in many countries, but it is more complex than algebraic notation and isn’t universal. Many of the old classic chess books written in descriptive notation have since been translated into algebraic notation.

The eight files with their descriptions are identical for White and Black. The ranks are numbered from one to eight, with each player beginning from his or her own side, so that “1” for White is “8” for Black. In this way, each square carries a unique letter and a number, making it easy to determine which piece is being moved from square to square. It’s this unique “addressing” that allows moves to be accurately recorded.

Captures are handled differently and the pawn gets the symbol P in English descriptive. Also, the symbol for check is
ch
rather than +.

Here is the same game you just looked at written in English descriptive notation:

1. P-K4 P-K4 2. N-KB3 P-Q3 3. P-Q4 B-N5 4. PxP BxN 5. QxB PxP 6.
B-QB4 N-KB3 7. Q-QN3 Q-K2 8. N-B3 P-B3 9. B-KN5 P-N4 10. NxP PxN
11. BxPch QN-Q2 12. 0-0-0 R-Q1 13. RxN RxN 14. R-Q1 Q-K3 15. BxRch
NxB 16. Q-N8ch NxQ 17. R-Q8 checkmate.

Other Notations

There are other notation systems you may come across from time to time. Spanish descriptive, Russian descriptive, or German descriptive are all very similar to English descriptive except that the piece symbols will correspond to the names of the pieces in those languages.

There is a special international correspondence notation system that is the simplest of all: Each square is assigned two numbers (both ranks and files are numbered) and moves are described as the square a piece or pawn has vacated and the square it moves to.

Forsyth Notation

There are notation systems for describing a chess position without bothering with the moves that led up to it. One such is Forsyth notation, in which each White piece or pawn is given as a capital letter and each Black piece or pawn as a lowercase letter. Empty squares are indicated by a number according to how many empty squares there are.

Chess notation, like music notation or mathematics notation, is quite specialized. It also has become standardized and even automatic with the rise of software, chess-playing computers, and the Internet. Thus you can read and write a universal language when you know chess notation.

Forsyth positions are set up like a diagram, with the White pieces at the bottom and the Black pieces at the top. Each row consists of a rank, starting with the eighth rank and continuing down to the first rank.

The final checkmate in the game we have been discussing looks like this in Forsyth notation:

1n1Rkb1r
p4ppp
4q3
4p1B1
4P3
8
PPP2PPP
2K5

Another Position Notation

Of course, it’s just as easy to simply describe the pieces that are on the board and the squares they are on. Again, using the same checkmate position:

Black: Ke8, Qe6, Rh8, Bf8, Nb8, Pa7, e5, f7, g7, h7

White: Kc1, Rd8, Bg5, Pa2, b2, c2, e4, f2, g2, h2

There is one other type of chess notation: Braille. Yes, blind people can and do play chess. They don’t play “blindfold,” however, like a master at an exhibition. Instead, they use special boards and pieces that they are allowed to touch at all times, since their fingers are their eyes. They record and read chess games in Braille notation.

Diagrams

These notation systems for positions are all right as far as they go. But they won’t be much help unless you have a chessboard and set to display the position. That is, unless you can easily visualize the position from the description. Not many people can do that readily.

So printed diagrams have come into use. These diagrams are simply a small picture of a chessboard with the pieces and pawns shown on their correct squares. You have already been making use of diagrams throughout this book, and will continue doing so.

Making diagrams was simply a matter of squishing a three-dimensional board with pieces and pawns into two dimensions. It was accomplished by picturing the board flat as seen from above and picturing the pieces as two-dimensional symbols of the actual pieces.

Representing a Game

Diagrams can be used in place of chess notation. The only problem is that they take up a lot of room, so printing costs and book or magazine weight and size are prohibitive. Here is the game we have been looking at so far in various notations, with a representation of each move shown with a new diagram:

Position after 1. e4.

Position after 1. ... e5.