You open a chess book or an article, you run into “3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5,” and it feels like reading a missile launch code. Good news: chess notation takes about ten minutes to learn, and once you can read it, all the written knowledge of chess opens up to you. Let’s see how it works.

The coordinates of the board

Everything starts here. The board is an 8-by-8 grid. The files, from left to right as White sees them, are named with letters from a to h. The ranks, from bottom to top, are numbered 1 to 8, rank 1 being White’s.

So every square has a unique name, a letter plus a number: e4 is the square on the e-file, fourth rank. The white king starts on e1, the black king on e8. It’s exactly the principle of the game Battleship. This coordinate system is the one thing you truly need to remember; the rest follows from it.

How a piece is written

Each piece has a letter. In English notation, the standard you’ll meet everywhere online and in software, the letters are: K (king), Q (queen), R (rook), B (bishop), N (knight, with an N so it isn’t confused with the king). The pawn has no letter.

Why N for knight and not K? Because K is already taken by the king. To avoid the clash, the knight borrows the second letter of its name, N. Keep that one quirk in mind and the rest is smooth sailing.

You may also run into French notation in French-language books and clubs, where the letters are the initials of the French names: R (roi, king), D (dame, queen), T (tour, rook), F (fou, bishop), C (cavalier, knight). The trap for an English speaker: a French “B” doesn’t exist, but a French “C” is a knight, and a French “F” is a bishop. Only the piece letters change, so switching between the two is instant once you know the principle.

Writing a move

A move is the letter of the piece followed by the destination square. Nf3 means “the knight goes to f3.” Bc4, “the bishop goes to c4.” For a pawn, you just give the square: e4 means “the pawn goes to e4.”

A few symbols round it out:

  • x marks a capture. Bxc6: the bishop takes on c6. For a pawn capture, you give the starting file: exd5 means “the e-file pawn takes on d5.”
  • + signals a check. Qh5+: the queen goes to h5 and gives check.
  • # signals checkmate. The game is over.
  • O-O is kingside castling, O-O-O is queenside castling.
  • = marks a promotion. e8=Q: the pawn reaches e8 and becomes a queen.

Sometimes two identical pieces can go to the same square. You then specify the starting file or rank: Rae1 means “the rook on the a-file goes to e1,” to tell it apart from the other rook.

Reading a complete game

Let’s put it all together on the first moves of a real game, the Italian Game:

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5

Let’s decode it. The number announces the move number. For each number, White’s move then Black’s move. Move 1: the white pawn goes to e4, the black pawn to e5. Move 2: white knight to f3, black knight to c6. Move 3: white bishop to c4, black bishop to c5. There you go, you’ve just read an opening. It wasn’t a secret code, just coordinates.

The payoff of reading it well

Knowing how to read notation isn’t a detail. It’s the key that opens up books, analyses, game databases, commentary. Without it, you stay a spectator; with it, you can study any game in history.

The fastest way to make notation stick is to pair the symbols with the moves themselves. That’s what happens when you replay an opening in Prologue: you push the bishop to its square and watch “Bc4” write itself at the same time. After a few lines, you read the symbols without translating them in your head. To build your foundations in order, go through the guide to learning chess.

Frequently asked questions

Should you learn English or figurine notation?

Learn to read English algebraic notation first, since it dominates on sites and in software. Figurine notation replaces the piece letter with a small drawing of the piece, which reads the same in every language. Both use the identical logic: piece marker, then destination square, so moving between them takes no effort.

What does the little “x” between two symbols mean?

It’s a capture. The piece shown takes whatever sits on the destination square. Bxc6 means the bishop takes the piece on c6. For a capture made by a pawn, you write the pawn’s starting file followed by the x, like exd5.

Why is the knight written “N” and not “K”?

Because K is already taken by the king. To avoid confusion, the knight uses the second letter of its name, N. It’s the one small oddity of the system, and once you’ve seen it a couple of times it sticks.

How do you write a pawn promotion?

You give the arrival square and add ”=” plus the new piece. e8=Q means the pawn reaches e8 and turns into a queen. You can promote to a rook, bishop, or knight the same way (e8=N), which is worth knowing for the rare cases where a queen isn’t the best choice.