Chess is a game of strategy
and tactics.
How to Understand Descriptive Notation in
Chess Strategy Books
|
by Chad Kimball
"Notation" is a method in chess strategy books that
is used to describe the movement of pieces on the
chess board, without needing a visual diagram of the
chess board for each move. It greatly increases a
chess author's ability to describe a large number
of chess games in compact form, leaving more room
for game analysis. It also allows the author to concentrate
on chess strategies and tactics, rather than requiring
hundreds and hundreds of cumbersome diagrams of the
chess board for each move.
If you are a chess player, aspiring to improve through
strategy books, understanding the two chess notation
styles is crucial to your improvement. Most chess
strategy books are either written in "Descriptive
Notation," or "Algebraic Notation."
Descriptive Notation, in general, was used in older
chess books and magazines, although it is possible
to run into more current chess literature using this
notation style as well. There are a huge number of
valuable chess books written in this style. I've posted
a visual diagram of a chess board describing descriptive
notation on my chess strategies site http://www.chessvictory.com.
Scroll to the bottom, and click on the resources link
to access the diagram.
In chess literature, the term "rank" refers to the
rows of the chess board. "File" refers to the columns.
If a chess book talks about the "1st rank" it means
the "first row." The "a file" refers to the "a column."
In Descriptive notation, the files are named according
to the chess piece on that file in its initial position.
For instance, QR means "queen's rook" and KB means
"king's rook." The diagram on my website mentioned
above also shows how the squares have different names/notations
depending on if we're describing the white side or
the black side. Each square is also described with
a number, describing the rank of the square, for instance,
QR7 means the queen's rook file in the 7th rank.
The movement of a piece is described by the name
of the piece, then a dash, then the name of the square
to which it is moving. For instance, Q-QB8 means that
the queen is moving to square QB8. Sometimes the square
names are shortened a bit if it is obvious which square
is being described. Both "KT" and "N" are used to
describe a knight.
Important notes:
Check is described with a "+" or "ch". A capture
is noted with a "x" followed by the piece being captured.
If the game has become complicated and it is unclear
which piece is being referred to, the description
will sometimes note whether it is the kingside or
queenside piece being moved. Instead of R-K7, the
clearer description would read QR-K7. P-K7=Q means
the pawn moves to K7 and is then promoted to a queen.
Castling is noted as O-O or O-O-O.
The best way to become familiar with descriptive
notation is to go to my chess tactics and chess strategies
site http://www.chessvictory.com,
scroll to the bottom, and click on the resources link.
On that page I've posted diagrams for the chessboard
in descriptive notation, as well as a sample game
written in descriptive notation, along with clear
diagrams of the chess board so you can easily see
which piece is moving.
About the Author
Chad Kimball publishes chess instruction books
and courses on the Internet. He is responsible for
bringing an exciting resource to the Internet: "The
Grandmaster Strategy Training Library." Click here
for more information on this 14 Volume Chess Resource:
http://www.chessvictory.com.
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