It can be quite embarressing. Sometimes when someone tells me to move a piece to h6 for example I freeze up or worse still move to the wrong square and they look at me like I'm an idiot.
I wonder if a better system would be to divide the board into quadrants A,B,C,D. And subquadrants q,x,y,z, then numbers 1-4.
So Ax2 would be a3 for example.
Well there *is* another type of notation. It is called DESCRIPTIVE NOTATION, which is what I grew up on, and in which most of your older chess books were written in. In DESCRIPTIVE NOTATION you name the piece that is moving -- P,R, N, (or Kt), B, K, Q -- and the name of square it is moving to, and whether it is on the King's side of the board, or the Queen's side. You count from your side 1-8 and from your opponents side from his perspective 1-8. It typical opening in DESCRIPTIVE NOTATION would look like this: 1. P-K4, P-K4 2. N-KB3, N-QB3 3. N-QB3 N-KB3 4. P-KN3, P-QN3 5. B-KN2, B-QN2, etc.
The exact same move order in Algabraic notation would be: 1. e4, e5 2. N-f3, N-c6 3. N-c3, N-f6 4 g3, b6 5. B-g2, B-b7.
If it help squares a-d are squares always on the QUEEN's side of the board; squares e-h, are always on the KING's side of the board. Then all you have to know how to do is COUNT from 1-8 starting from WHITE's point of view.
It is really EASY. I have ZERO problem reading Algebraic notation, but recording is a different problem, as I grew up using DESCRIPTIVE NOTATION, and still THINK in DESCRIPTIVE. If you are just starting out Algebraic is the way to go. Here are the skills you need in order:
1: Be able to distinguish between the KING's Side and the QUEEN's Side of the board.
2: Remember that a-d belongs to the QUEEN's Side and e-h is the KING's Side
3: Be able to coujnt from 1-8 starting from WHITE's back rank
4: Only major pieces -- Rooks, Knights, Bishop, King, and Queen have a designation, pawns are designated, only by the square to which it moves.
5. The name of the piece comes first followed by a "dash" and followed by the square to which it moves.
6. A capture is desigantion by an "x"
7. A king side Castling is designated as 0-0, and a Queen side Castling as 0-0-0
8. In the rare event that either the King side Rook (Knight, Bishop) can occupy the same sqaur as the Queen side Rook (Knight, Bishop) then you have to designate the piece and the squre that it is leaving from and going to ex: Nc3 x e5 vs Ng4 x e5 ; or maybe Ra5 - e5 vs Rh5 - e5.
If you can't master these skills within a day, I suggest you take up some other sport -- that or limit yourself to skittle games, as chess was not meant for you.
Good to know I'm not crazy