Help, I'm lost...

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Avatar of RespawnsibleOne

I am sorry, this is probably in the wrong board.

Where do I find all the terms for chess moves..

I understand stuff like Qa7, that means queen on A-7. That's almost common sense when looking at the board while given the name.

What I am confused about is stuff like 1.b5 (if that's even real, I hope you get what I am saying though). I think I saw it in a chess openings article.

Anyways, thanks for the help and sorry that I am dumb, I just can't find the information anywhere. It's just in the LEARN section it keeps refearing to these numbers and letters that I can't even understand. How am I supposed to learn? If you could just point me in the right direction that would be great.


Avatar of neneko

There's both short and long notation in chess. The short notation just tell you where the piece moved in most cases. For example 3. Qb3 means that the white queen moved to b3 in the third move. The letter in front of the move tells you what piece it was that moved there N=knight, Q=queen, K=king, R=rook, B=bishop and if there's no letter in front of the move it means a pawn moved.

So 1. b4 means a pawn moved to b4 in the first move.  If a move capture a piece you add a x after the letter telling what piece moved. For example if a knight capture a piece on g5 that would be noted Nxg5. If a pawn capture a piece you add the file they wree currently on to the move so a pawn on b4 that capture a piece on c5 would look bxc4.

 

Castling is written 0-0-0 and 0-0 for long and short castling. If a move put the king in check you add a + after it like Rg5+ for example. If it's check mate you add a # like Qh7#. The last note is usually either 1-0 (white won) 0-! (black won) or ½-½ (draw)

 

 Pawn promotions are usually noted like this b8=Q but I've seen alot of variations on this like e1/Q, c8Q, g8(R).

En passant don't really need a special notation but is usually noted with /ep after the move like  dxc6/ep.

 

If there's any situation where two pieces can move to the same square  you add the file or rank before the move depending on what differs. For example if you have a knight on c3 and one on e3 and move the later one to d5 that would be noted Ned5.

Sometimes you need to add both the file and rank before the move. This might seem silly first since if you had two pieces on both the same rank and file they'd be on the same square but after pawn promotions you can get into situations where it's needed.

 

Last thing is that moves are always written with white first like 1. d4 d5 would mean that white moved a pawn to d4 and black moved a pawn to d5 in the first move.

If you want to write moves separately the black moves usually have ".." added in front of them like 3. ..Ng6

 

A little note on long notation is that it is almost the same as the short notation except that you always write out from where the piece moved. For example Ng1f3, d7d5 and so on. 


Avatar of RespawnsibleOne

Thank you so much... They should really put chess notation in chess rules & basics, it would really help...

I understood simple things but with like X and certain things that didn't have a letter in front really confused the heck out of me. Thank you again, you really don't know how much that helps, both of you.


Avatar of silverratcat

Thanks you guys,

Especially neneko (you're a good teacher) Also I agree with you (Tr4) that notation should go into  " chess rules & basics" that's where you & I looked and no doubt thousands of others! Perhaps it is there & we didn't see it?

All the best - Mike


Avatar of TheOldReb
Tr4mpldUndrfooT wrote:

Thank you so much... They should really put chess notation in chess rules & basics, it would really help...

I understood simple things but with like X and certain things that didn't have a letter in front really confused the heck out of me. Thank you again, you really don't know how much that helps, both of you.


I guess you are referring to chess rules&basics on chess.com? Many years ago even dime store chess sets included chess notation with the rules and basics. Bue, they were in the descriptive notation! LOL  Descriptive is far more confusing than algebraic and is rarely used anymore but it was what I learned first. The dime store sets were cheap plastic pieces witha red and black squared "checker board" back then. I always had to carefully avoid the T-Rex on my way to and from the dime store........long long ago. Smile