Chess notation is very important in professional games. Here, you will learn the Algebraic Notation that is used widely around the world today, and it replaces an older method of chess notation. Also, by using chess notation, one could record games and play games over the phone. To start off, let's see what each piece stands for, and how much each piece is "worth". The King is the most valuable piece in the game, because if you lose the king, you lose the game. The Knight and the Bishop are basically equal, although the knight is stronger towards the beginning of the game, when there's more pieces and tight spaces, while the bishop shows its power towards the end, when it has more space to roam.

Now that you know the pieces, we need a way to show how a piece moves. There are 8 columns are 8 rows on the chess board. The rows are often called "ranks" while columns are called "files". The files uses the number 1 through 8 while the ranks use the letters a through h. To identify each of the 64 squares on the board, a number is followed after a letter to identify a specific square. A1 starts at the bottom-left corner of the board, where the square is black and the white rook is at start. H8 is at the upper-right corner of the board, where the square is black and the black rock is at start. See the illustration below.

The last step is to show how the piece moves and captures. To show how a pawn moves, just indicate the space where the pawn goes. For example, if your pawn is at d2, and it moves two spaces to d4, just write "d4". However, when a pawn takes an opponent's piece, you have to show which column the pawn is from that takes the piece. To show a piece is captured, the "x" symbol is used. So if the pawn on e5 takes the opponent's piece on d6, the notation is "exd5". However, if the piece that's doing the capturing is not a pawn, the piece notation must be used for that piece. But the piece that is captured does not have a piece notation. So if the king on f2 captures any piece on f3, the notation is "kxf3". Also, if there are two pieces that are both capable of capturing the piece on a square, use: the piece notation (not used for pawns), file it is on, "x", and the square of the capture. For example, if there are two knights both capable of taking a bishop on g5 (or moving to g4), the notation could be: "Nfxg5" (if not capturing, just extract the "x"). If two bishops are on the same file, then use the rank number to show the specific bishop when moving or capturing (e.g. b4f7).

To show castling on the King's side, the notation is "0-0" while castling on the Queen side is "0-0-0". For check, the symbol "+" is used at the end, while "#" at the end represents checkmate. During en passent, the notation is: file, "x", the place where the pawn is after capture, and "e.p." (e.g. "exg6 e.p."). The last special notation is promotion. The notation would be: square where promotion takes place, and the piece promoted to immediately follows (e.g. "e8Q"). When a excellent move occurs, the symbol "!" is used, and "!!" denotes a really excellent move. "!?" after the notation represents a dubious move, "?" means a doubtful move, while an "??" denotes a blunder.

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