How to read chess moves — Ironwood Chess

A beginner's guide to board squares, piece letters, captures, check, and castling.

Board squares have a letter a–h for the file (column) and a number 1–8 for the rank (row). e4 is one square. When reading from White’s side, a1 is the bottom-left corner.

The usual move list uses SAN, or Standard Algebraic Notation. A capital letter names a piece: K king, Q queen, R rook, B bishop, and N knight. Pawns use no piece letter. For example, Nf3 means a knight moves to f3, while e4 means a pawn moves to e4.

Mark	Meaning	Example
`x`	Capture a piece	`Bxe6` means a bishop captures on e6.
`+`	Give check	`Qh5+` attacks the king.
`#`	Give checkmate	`Qxf7#` ends the game by checkmate.
`O-O`	Castle kingside	The king and rook move together toward the h-file side.
`O-O-O`	Castle queenside	The king and rook move together toward the a-file side.
`=Q`	Promote a pawn to a queen	`e8=Q` means the pawn reaches e8 and becomes a queen.

Sometimes a file or rank is added to distinguish two pieces that could reach the same square, such as Nbd2. 1. is White’s first turn; 1... marks Black’s first turn when shown separately.

Engine data may use UCI coordinates instead: g1f3 means a piece moves from g1 to f3. The letters in a UCI move are square names, not a sentence. See Move symbols for Ironwood’s separate quality marks such as ? and ??.