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104-404: Algebraic notation is the standard method for recording and describing the moves in a game of chess . It is based on a system of coordinates to uniquely identify each square on the board. It is now almost universally used by books, magazines, newspapers and software, and is the only form of notation recognized by FIDE , the international chess governing body. An early form of algebraic notation

208-399: A dagger (†) or the abbreviation "ch" is used. Some publications indicate a discovered check with an abbreviation such as "dis ch", or with a specific symbol. Double check is usually indicated the same as check, but is sometimes represented specifically as "dbl ch" or "++", particularly in older chess literature. Some publications such as ECO omit any indication of check. Checkmate at

312-477: A multiplication sign (×) or a colon (:) is used instead of "x", either in the middle ( B:e5 ) or at the end ( Be5: ). Some publications, such as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings ( ECO ), omit any indication that a capture has been made; for example, Be5 instead of Bxe5; ed6 instead of exd6 or exd6 e.p. When it is unambiguous to do so, a pawn capture is sometimes described by specifying only

416-408: A dark square. This may be remembered by the phrases "light on the right" and "queen on her own color". In formal competition, the piece colors for every matchup are allocated to players by the organizers. In informal games, colors are decided either by mutual agreement, or randomly, for example by a coin toss, or by one player concealing a white pawn in one hand and a black pawn in the other and having

520-565: A drawn endgame. Steinitz wrote, "We approve of the decision of the London Chess Congress, of 1862, although the 'dummy' pawn rule was denounced by some authorities." The same rule and explanation are given by George H. D. Gossip in The Chess-Player's Manual . The broad language of Law XIII appears to allow promotion to any piece of either color . This led to the whimsical joke chess problem illustrated. White

624-764: A half-move earlier in Terentiev–Gallagher, Liechtenstein Open 1990: And now White could have resigned, since if 9.Rxa2, ...c2 promotes the c-pawn. In the actual game, White played 9.Nxc3, dropping a rook, and played on in a hopeless position for several more moves. Another example occurs after the moves: With the dual threat of 12...hxg1=Q and 12...h1=Q, as in Schuster–Carls, Bremen 1914 and NN – Torre , Mexico 1928. If 10.Qd2 instead of 10.c3, then 10...exf2+! 11.Kd1 (11.Kxf2 Qxd2+) Qxd2+ 12.Kxd2 fxg1=Q rather than 10...Qxe5 11.dxe5 gxh2 12.Nf3 h1=Q 13.0-0-0 with

728-408: A knight may be useful for a variety of reasons (illustrated below). Because the queen combines the powers of the rook and the bishop, there is rarely a reason to promote to either of those pieces. Doing so is occasionally advantageous, however, usually to avoid an immediate draw by stalemate if the promotion were to a queen. Promotion to knight or rook in practical play is rare, and promotion to bishop

832-412: A pawn can be promoted only to a mantri , an early form of the queen only able to move one square diagonally, with the idea being that a foot soldier that advanced all the way through the enemy lines was promoted to the lowest rank of officer. Others claim that the pawn, if the piece is available for promotion, is promoted to the piece initially positioned on the file on which the pawn stands, except if

936-440: A pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn departed is used to identify the pawn. For example, exd5 (pawn on the e-file captures the piece on d5). En passant captures are indicated by specifying the capturing pawn's file of departure, the "x", the destination square (not the square of the captured pawn), and (optionally) the suffix "e.p." indicating the capture was en passant . For example, exd6 e.p. Sometimes

1040-411: A promotion could only be to a piece previously captured. Lambe also stated this rule in a 1765 book. A player could thus never have two queens, three knights, three rooks, or three bishops. The restricted promotion rule was applied inconsistently. Jacob Sarratt 's 1828 book gave unrestricted promotion. By Sarratt's time, unrestricted promotion was popular, and according to Davidson, it was universal by

1144-404: A queen is known as queening ; promotion to any other piece is known as underpromotion . Promotion is almost always to a queen, as it is the most powerful piece. Underpromotion might be done for various reasons, such as to avoid stalemate or for tactical reasons related to the knight's unique movement pattern. Promotion or the threat of it often decides the result in an endgame . When a pawn

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1248-415: A queen. However, according to FIDE arbiter guidelines, such a move is treated as a legal promotion to a rook (not an illegal move, which would incur a time penalty). Promotion first existed in chaturanga , an ancestor of chess created in the 6th century. In chaturanga, a pawn is promoted upon reaching the last rank of the board. Historians dispute what the pawn can be promoted to. Some sources state that

1352-465: A return to the surrounding narrative text. Besides the standard (or short) algebraic notation already described, several similar systems have been used. In long algebraic notation, also known as fully expanded algebraic notation, both the starting and ending squares are specified, for example: e2e4 . Sometimes these are separated by a hyphen, e.g. Nb1-c3 , while captures are indicated by an "x", e.g. Rd3xd7 . Long algebraic notation takes more space and

1456-680: A role it assumed in 1948. The current World Champion is Ding Liren of China. The reigning Women's World Champion is Ju Wenjun from China. Other competitions for individuals include the World Junior Chess Championship , the European Individual Chess Championship , the tournaments for the World Championship qualification cycle , and the various national championships . Invitation-only tournaments regularly attract

1560-410: A rook versus pawn endgame; a 2006 game between Gata Kamsky and Étienne Bacrot shows such a case. White threatens to capture the pawn or checkmate by Rh1 if the black pawn promotes to a queen, rook, or bishop. The only move that does not lose for Black is 74...e1=N+! The resulting rook versus knight endgame is a theoretical draw (see pawnless chess endgame ). In the actual game, mistakes were made in

1664-411: A rook, so does White, and so on). In the diagrammed position, 1...d1=Q? leaves material equal and leads to a drawn position. Instead, promotion to a knight with 1...d1=N+ wins by virtue of a fork : 2.K(any) followed by 2...Nxb2 leaves Black a piece up with a winning endgame. Promotion to knight may also be done for defensive reasons. For example, a knight promotion is a standard defensive technique in

1768-511: A series of games between two players, or a team competition in which each player of one team plays one game against a player of the other team. Chess's international governing body is usually known by its French acronym FIDE (pronounced FEE-day) ( French : Fédération internationale des échecs), or International Chess Federation. FIDE's membership consists of the national chess organizations of over 180 countries; there are also several associate members, including various supra-national organizations,

1872-510: A simple trap known as the Scholar's mate (see animated diagram) can be recorded: Variants of algebraic notation include long algebraic , in which both the departure and destination square are indicated; abbreviated algebraic , in which capture signs, check signs, and ranks of pawn captures may be omitted; and Figurine Algebraic Notation, used in chess publications for universal readability regardless of language. Portable Game Notation (PGN)

1976-522: A strong attack. There are also a few opening lines where each side gets a desperado pawn that goes on a capturing spree, resulting in each side queening a pawn in the opening. An example is seen in the position diagrammed, where play continued 10... bxc3 11. exf6 cxb2 12. fxg7 bxa1=Q 13. gxh8=Q . Both players promoted by White's seventh move in Casper–Heckert: In master play, it is rare for one or both players to have more than one queen. One of

2080-483: A third pawn, this time to a queen. In the diagrammed position, Black threatens to capture White's pawn and draw the game. Promotion to a queen would result in a stalemate, whereas the move 1.g8=R! wins because White can force an elementary checkmate from the resulting position. In the diagrammed position from the game Short–Daly, 2006 Irish Chess Championship , a promotion to queen would allow stalemate: 70...b1=Q?? 71.Qh3+! Kxh3 stalemate (or 71...Kg1 72.Qh1+!, and now

2184-466: A valuable asset. Almost all promotions occur in the endgame, but promotion can happen at any point in the game. Due to the pawn's ability to be promoted, having an extra pawn can often be a decisive advantage. In general, a pawn is more valuable the farther advanced it is, as it is closer to promotion. As a result, it is often beneficial to place a pawn in enemy territory; even if it does not control any important squares, it may still be useful, as it forces

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2288-476: A wide variety of styles. The Staunton pattern is the most common, and is usually required for competition. Chess pieces are divided into two sets, usually light and dark colored, referred to as white and black , regardless of the actual color or design. The players of the sets are referred to as White and Black , respectively. Each set consists of sixteen pieces: one king , one queen , two rooks , two bishops , two knights , and eight pawns . The game

2392-413: Is 57.g8=N!, which White played. Twenty-one moves later, the players reached the position in the second diagram. Once again, a promotion to anything other than a knight would allow a knight fork, e.g. 79.c8=Q?? Nd6+ and 80...Nxc8, with a drawn ending. White instead played 79.c8=N+! (there are other winning moves, such as 79.Kc5) 79...Kb8 80.Kb6 and Black resigned, since White cannot be stopped from promoting

2496-399: Is a text-based file format for recording chess games, based on short form English algebraic notation with a small amount of markup . PGN files (suffix .pgn) can be processed by most chess software, as well as being easily readable by humans. Until about 1980, the majority of English language chess publications used descriptive notation , in which files are identified by the initial letter of

2600-424: Is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance . It is played on a chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The players, referred to generically as "White" and "Black" , each control sixteen pieces : one king , one queen , two rooks , two bishops , two knights , and eight pawns . White moves first, followed by Black; then moves alternate. The object of

2704-415: Is compulsory; a player may not skip a turn, even when having to move is detrimental . Each piece has its own way of moving. In the diagrams, crosses mark the squares to which the piece can move if there are no intervening piece(s) of either color (except the knight, which leaps over any intervening pieces). All pieces except the pawn can capture an enemy piece if it is on a square to which they could move if

2808-423: Is controlled using a chess clock that has two displays, one for each player's remaining time. Analog chess clocks have been largely replaced by digital clocks, which allow for time controls with increments . Time controls are also enforced in correspondence chess competitions. A typical time control is 50 days for every 10 moves. Historically, many different notation systems have been used to record chess moves;

2912-418: Is distinct because it has no letter. The ranks are lettered in reverse – from the 7th to the 1st: k , l , m , n , o , p , q . Another system of notation using only letters appears in a book of Mediaeval chess, Rechenmeister Jacob Köbel 's Schachzabel Spiel of 1520. Algebraic notation exists in various forms and languages and is based on a system developed by Philipp Stamma in the 1730s. Stamma used

3016-577: Is even rarer, but they are a popular theme in composed chess problems , such as the Saavedra position . For example, a study by Jan Rusinek sees White promoting to knight, bishop and rook in order to induce stalemate. An Allumwandlung is a problem where promotions to all four possible pieces occur. An extreme example is the Babson task , a directmate where promotions by Black must be countered by matching promotions by White (so if Black promotes to

3120-415: Is no indication regarding how a player won or lost (other than checkmate, see above), so simply 1–0 or 0–1 may be written to show that one player resigned or lost due to time control or forfeit. Similarly, there is more than one way for a game to end in a draw. Sometimes direct information is given by the words "White resigns" or "Black resigns", though this is not considered part of the notation but rather

3224-644: Is no longer commonly used in print; however, it has the advantage of clarity. Both short and long algebraic notation are acceptable for keeping a record of the moves on a scoresheet, as is required in FIDE rated games. A form of long algebraic notation (without piece names) is also used by the Universal Chess Interface (UCI) standard, which is a common way for graphical chess programs to communicate with chess engines, e.g. e2e4, e1g1 (castling), e7e8q (promotion). In international correspondence chess

Algebraic notation (chess) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3328-526: Is no longer recognized by FIDE. The term "algebraic notation" may be considered a misnomer , as the system is unrelated to algebra . Each square of the board is identified by a unique coordinate pair—a letter and a number—from White's point of view. The vertical columns of squares, called files , are labeled a through h from White's left (the queenside ) to right (the kingside ). The horizontal rows of squares, called ranks , are numbered 1 to 8 starting from White's side of

3432-399: Is not a permissible response to a check. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent; this occurs when the opponent's king is in check, and there is no legal way to get it out of check. It is never legal for a player to make a move that puts or leaves the player's own king in check. In casual games, it is common to announce "check" when putting the opponent's king in check, but this

3536-411: Is not required by the rules of chess and is usually not done in tournaments. Once per game, each king can make a move known as castling . Castling consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook of the same color on the same rank, and then placing the rook on the square that the king crossed. Castling is permissible if the following conditions are met: Castling is still permitted if

3640-422: Is played on a square board of eight rows (called ranks ) and eight columns (called files ). Although it does not affect game play, by convention the 64 squares alternate in color and are referred to as light and dark squares. Common colors for wooden chessboards are light and dark brown, while vinyl chessboards are commonly buff and green. To start the game, White's pieces are placed on

3744-449: Is promoted, it is removed from the board, and the new piece is placed on the square the pawn moved to. A piece may be promoted to regardless of whether it has been captured. Consequently, a player might have two or more queens, or three or more rooks, bishops, or knights. In theory, a player could have as many as nine queens, ten knights, ten bishops, or ten rooks, though these are highly improbable scenarios. Most chess sets come with only

3848-491: Is recognized in FIDE-sanctioned events; game scores recorded in a different notation system may not be used as evidence in the event of a dispute. Chess is often played casually in public spaces such as parks and town squares. Contemporary chess is an organized sport with structured international and national leagues, tournaments, and congresses . Thousands of chess tournaments, matches, and festivals are held around

3952-436: Is the current World Champion. A huge body of chess theory has developed since the game's inception. Aspects of art are found in chess composition , and chess in its turn influenced Western culture and the arts , and has connections with other fields such as mathematics , computer science , and psychology . One of the goals of early computer scientists was to create a chess-playing machine . In 1997, Deep Blue became

4056-456: Is the only way to win, threatening mate with Bb7 that the enemy bishop, being confined to dark squares, is helpless to prevent: Less often, promotion to bishop is necessary to induce stalemate to save a draw in an otherwise hopeless position. The example shown is from the end of a study by Hermanis Matisons . Both king moves lose quickly (they can be met by 6...Rgg7, for example), so the pawn must be promoted. 6.b8=Q and 6.b8=R both lose to

4160-410: Is to play and checkmate in one move. No solution is possible under modern-day rules, but with Law XIII in effect, the surprising solution is 1.g8=BlackN#!!, when the newly-promoted knight blocks its own king's flight square. Other amusing problems have been created involving promotion to a white or black king, which Law XIII also appears to allow. Howard Staunton vigorously opposed the 1862 rule when it

4264-526: Is usually calculated as 1 point for each game won and one-half point for each game drawn. Variations such as "football scoring" (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw) may be used by tournament organizers, but ratings are always calculated on the basis of standard scoring. A player's score may be reported as total score out of games played (e.g. 5½/8), points for versus points against (e.g. 5½–2½), or by number of wins, losses and draws (e.g. +4−1=3). The term "match" refers not to an individual game, but to either

Algebraic notation (chess) - Misplaced Pages Continue

4368-439: Is written Qh4e1 . As above, an "x" can be inserted to indicate a capture; for example, if the final case were a capture, it would be written as Qh4xe1 . When a pawn promotes , the piece promoted to is indicated at the end. For example, a pawn on e7 promoting to a queen on e8 may be variously rendered as e8Q , e8=Q , e8(Q) , e8/Q etc. FIDE specifies draw offers to be recorded by an equals sign with parentheses "(=)" after

4472-559: The Game of the Century could be represented as follows in PGN: A game or series of moves is generally written in one of two ways; in two columns, as White/Black pairs, preceded by the move number and a period: or horizontally: Moves may be interspersed with commentary, called annotations . When the game score resumes with a Black move, an ellipsis (...) fills the position of

4576-885: The International Braille Chess Association (IBCA), International Committee of Chess for the Deaf (ICCD), and the International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA). FIDE is recognized as a sports governing body by the International Olympic Committee , but chess has never been part of the Olympic Games . FIDE's most visible activity is organizing the World Chess Championship ,

4680-443: The macOS chess application . In Russian and ex- USSR publications, where captures are indicated by ":", checkmate can also be represented by "X" or "x". The notation 1–0 at the completion of moves indicates that White won, 0–1 indicates that Black won, and ½–½ indicates a draw . In case of forfeit , the scores 0–0, ½–0, and 0–½ are also possible. If player(s) lost by default, results are +/−, −/+, or −/−. Often there

4784-506: The 20th century. Beginning in the 1970s, algebraic notation gradually became more common in English language publications, and by 1980 it had become the prevalent notation. In 1981, FIDE stopped recognizing descriptive notation, and algebraic notation became the accepted international standard. The table contains names for all the pieces as well as the words for chess , check , and checkmate in several languages. Several languages use

4888-489: The 32 pieces used in the starting position. Some chess sets come with an extra queen of each color, but this does not accommodate the possibility of having three or more pieces of the same type. When multiple sets are available, promoted pieces are borrowed from other sets if required. Under FIDE rules, a player may stop the clocks and summon the arbiter to provide a piece for promotion. Under US Chess Federation rules and in casual play, an upside-down rook may designate

4992-475: The Arabic loanword alfil for the piece called bishop in English; in this context it is a chess-specific term which no longer has its original meaning of "elephant". Chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess). Chess

5096-406: The London Chess Congress, of 1862 . 1.Bxg2? loses quickly after 1...Ra1+ 2.Bf1 Rb1, putting White in zugzwang , so the pawn must capture the rook and promote. If White plays 1.bxa8=Q? or promotes to rook, bishop or knight, Black wins with 1...gxh3, whereupon 2...h2 # is unstoppable. Instead, White draws by 1.bxa8=P!!, when 1...gxh3 or 1...Kxh3 stalemates White, and other moves allow 2.Bxg2, with

5200-567: The White move, for example: Though not technically a part of algebraic notation, the following are some symbols commonly used by annotators, for example in publications Chess Informant and Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings , to give editorial comment on a move or position. The symbol chosen is simply appended to the end of the move notation, for example, in the Soller Gambit : 1.d4 e5?! 2.dxe5 f6 3.e4! Nc6 4.Bc4+/− Descriptive notation

5304-555: The absurd "dead Pawn" rule, against which Staunton had made his protest in 1862, had failed to win acceptance. The British Chess Association code was superseded by the "Revised International Chess Code" of the London 1883 international chess tournament, under which promotion is mandatory. The ability to promote is often the critical factor in endgames and thus is an important consideration in opening and middlegame strategy . A far-advanced pawn can threaten to be promoted and thus be

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5408-406: The available time. Noritsyn's appeal was dismissed. An underpromotion is a promotion to a knight, rook, or bishop. Although these pieces are less powerful than the queen, there are some rare situations where underpromotion is advantageous. In practice, many underpromotions are inconsequential, described as "silly jokes" by Tim Krabbé . Due to the knight's unique movement pattern, promotion to

5512-492: The best known games in which each side had two queens is Bobby Fischer vs. Tigran Petrosian , 1959 Candidates Tournament , illustrated in the diagram and analyzed extensively in Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games . Four queens existed from move 37 until move 44. Very few games have been played with six queens; two examples are Emil Szalanczy–Nguyen Thi Mai (2009) and David Antón Guijarro –Alejandro Franco Alonso (2011). In

5616-429: The black king is forced to capture). Instead, the game concluded 70...b1=R! 0–1 Less often, promotion to rook is necessary to induce stalemate to save a draw in an otherwise hopeless position. The example shown is from the end of a study by Frédéric Lazard . Black threatens checkmate by moving the king and playing ...Bf4. Promotion to queen does not work: 4.d8=Q? Bf4 5.Qd2+ Kf3 6.Qxf4+ Kxf4, and Black easily wins

5720-514: The board. Thus each square has a unique identification of file letter followed by rank number. For example, the initial square of White's king is designated as "e1". Each piece type (other than pawns) is identified by an uppercase letter. English-speaking players use the letters K for king , Q for queen , R for rook , B for bishop , and N for knight . Different initial letters are used by other languages. In modern chess literature, especially that intended for an international audience,

5824-403: The completion of moves is represented by the symbol "#" in standard FIDE notation and PGN. The word mate is commonly used instead; occasionally a double dagger ( ‡ ) or a double plus sign (++) is used, although the double plus sign is also used to represent " double check " when a king is under attack by two enemy pieces simultaneously. A checkmate is represented by " ≠ " (the not equal sign ) in

5928-403: The coordinates of the destination square. For example, Be5 (bishop moves to e5), Nf3 (knight moves to f3). For pawn moves, a letter indicating pawn is not used, only the destination square is given. For example, c5 (pawn moves to c5). When a piece makes a capture , an "x" is inserted immediately before the destination square. For example, Bxe5 (bishop captures the piece on e5). When

6032-418: The diagram, both black rooks could legally move to f8, so the move of the d8-rook to f8 is disambiguated as Rdf8 . For the white rooks on the a-file which could both move to a3, it is necessary to provide the rank of the moving piece, i.e., R1a3 . In the case of the white queen on h4 moving to e1, neither the rank nor file alone are sufficient to disambiguate from the other white queens. As such, this move

6136-422: The diagrammed position, the pawn must be advanced to c8 and promoted; otherwise, it is captured, resulting in a draw. Promotion to a queen or rook would pin the bishop, leaving Black with no legal moves, resulting in a stalemate; promotion to knight may appear to threaten checkmate via 2.Nb6#, but Black moves their bishop next turn, so there is no mate, and White cannot make any further progress. Promotion to bishop

6240-584: The end of the 15th century, with standardization and universal acceptance by the end of the 19th century. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, with millions of players worldwide. Organized chess arose in the 19th century. Chess competition today is governed internationally by FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs ; the International Chess Federation). The first universally recognized World Chess Champion , Wilhelm Steinitz , claimed his title in 1886; Ding Liren

6344-404: The end of the game, " 1–0 " means White won, " 0–1 " means Black won, and " ½–½ " indicates a draw. Chess moves can be annotated with punctuation marks and other symbols . For example: " ! " indicates a good move; " !! " an excellent move; " ? " a mistake; " ?? " a blunder; " !? " an interesting move that may not be best; or " ?! " a dubious move not easily refuted. For example, one variation of

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6448-448: The enemy pawn's two-square advance; otherwise, the right to do so is forfeited. For example, in the animated diagram, the black pawn advances two squares from g7 to g5, and the white pawn on f5 can take it en passant on g6 (but only immediately after the black pawn's advance). When a pawn advances to its eighth rank , as part of the move, it is promoted and must be exchanged for the player's choice of queen, rook, bishop, or knight of

6552-439: The files involved ( exd or even ed ). These shortened forms are sometimes called abbreviated algebraic notation or minimal algebraic notation . When two (or more) identical pieces can move to the same square, the moving piece is uniquely identified by specifying the piece's letter, followed by (in descending order of preference): If neither file nor rank alone is sufficient to identify the piece, then both are specified. In

6656-664: The first computer to beat a reigning World Champion in a match when it defeated Garry Kasparov . Today's chess engines are significantly stronger than the best human players and have deeply influenced the development of chess theory; however, chess is not a solved game . The rules of chess are published by FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs; "International Chess Federation"), chess's world governing body, in its Handbook . Rules published by national governing bodies , or by unaffiliated chess organizations, commercial publishers, etc., may differ in some details. FIDE's rules were most recently revised in 2023. Chess sets come in

6760-504: The first game, each side had three queens from move 58 to move 65. The game ended in a draw with a single queen on each side. In the second game, both sides also had three queens; Black ultimately resigned with each side having one queen. An unusual incident occurred in a 1993 game between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov . When the game reached the diagrammed position, Karpov was in serious time trouble , having one minute to make 16 moves in order to reach overtime . Kasparov captured

6864-423: The first rank in the following order, from left to right: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook. Pawns are placed on each square of the second rank. Black's position mirrors White's, with equivalent pieces on every file. The board is oriented so that the right-hand corner nearest each player is a light square; as a result the white queen always starts on a light square, while the black queen starts on

6968-407: The first rank moves to e2"). For pawns, no letter initial is used; so e4 means "pawn moves to the square e4". If the piece makes a capture, "x" is usually inserted before the destination square. Thus Bxf3 means "bishop captures on f3". When a pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn departed is used to identify the pawn making the capture, for example, exd5 (pawn on the e-file captures

7072-436: The g-file, 5th rank" (that is, to the square g5). Different initials may be used for other languages. In chess literature, figurine algebraic notation (FAN) is frequently used to aid understanding independent of language. To resolve ambiguities, an additional letter or number is added to indicate the file or rank from which the piece moved (e.g. Ngf3 means "knight from the g-file moves to the square f3"; R1e2 means "rook on

7176-567: The game is to checkmate (threaten with inescapable capture) the enemy king. There are also several ways a game can end in a draw . The recorded history of chess goes back at least to the emergence of a similar game, chaturanga , in seventh-century India . After its introduction in Persia , it spread to the Arab world and then to Europe. The rules of chess as they are known today emerged in Europe at

7280-426: The game. Kasparov later disputed that his move had been illegal. The 2017 Canadian Chess Championship , played under FIDE rules, was controversially decided by an incorrectly executed promotion. At the end of the regular tournament, Bator Sambuev and Nikolay Noritsyn , both former champions, were tied for first place and were required to decide the title by playoff. After a series of rapid games failed to resolve

7384-417: The language-specific letters are usually replaced by universally recognized piece symbols ; for example, ♞c6 in place of Nc6 . This style is known as figurine algebraic notation . The Unicode Miscellaneous Symbols set includes all the symbols necessary for figurine algebraic notation. In standard (or short form) algebraic notation, each move of a piece is indicated by the piece's uppercase letter, plus

7488-413: The mid-19th century. However, Howard Staunton wrote in The Chess-Player's Handbook , originally published in 1847, that Carl Jaenisch said that the restricted promotion rule was still in force in northern Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, and Germany. For instance, an 1836 Norwegian game-book by Peter Tidemand Malling clearly states "Queen, Rock, or any other officer that has been lost", and this wording

7592-424: The modern names of the squares (and may have been the first to number the ranks), but he used p for pawn moves and the capital original file of a piece ( A through H ) instead of the initial letter of the piece name as used now. Piece letters were introduced in the 1780s by Moses Hirschel , and Johann Allgaier with Aaron Alexandre developed the modern castling notation in the 1810s. Algebraic notation

7696-485: The move 1.e4 is rendered as 1.5254. In recent years, the majority of correspondence games have been played on on-line servers rather than by email or post, leading to a decline in the use of ICCF numeric notation. Portable Game Notation (PGN) is a text-based file format for storing chess games, which uses standard English algebraic notation and a small amount of markup. PGN can be processed by almost all chess software, as well as being easily readable by humans. For example,

7800-411: The move on the score sheet . This is not usually included in published game scores. Castling is indicated by the special notations 0-0 (for kingside castling) and 0-0-0 ( queenside castling). O-O and O-O-O (letter O rather than digit 0) are also commonly used. A move that places the opponent's king in check usually has the symbol "+" appended. Alternatively, sometimes

7904-454: The opening, often after one side makes a blunder , as in the Lasker trap , which features a promotion to a knight on move seven: Schlechter – Perlis , Karlsbad 1911 could have featured a promotion to queen on move 11: Threatening both 11.cxb8=Q and 11.c8=Q. Perlis avoided the trap with 8...Nxc6!, losing more slowly. The British grandmaster Joe Gallagher used the same tactical pattern

8008-414: The opponent choose. White moves first, after which players alternate turns, moving one piece per turn (except for castling , when two pieces are moved). A piece is moved to either an unoccupied square or one occupied by an opponent's piece, which is captured and removed from play. With the sole exception of en passant , all pieces capture by moving to the square that the opponent's piece occupies. Moving

8112-442: The opponent has enough pieces left to deliver checkmate). The duration of a game ranges from long (or "classical") games, which can take up to seven hours (even longer if adjournments are permitted), to bullet chess (under 3 minutes per player for the entire game). Intermediate between these are rapid chess games, lasting between one and two hours per game, a popular time control in amateur weekend tournaments. Time

8216-489: The opponent to ensure that it is not promoted. A passed pawn is a pawn that no enemy pawns can stop from reaching promotion. A passed pawn is highly valuable in the endgame, where few enemy pieces remain to prevent it from being promoted. A pawn race is a situation in which each side tries to promote a passed pawn before their opponent. Usually, the first player to promote wins unless their opponent can promote immediately afterward. Promotion occasionally occurs in

8320-428: The pawn ending. Promotion to rook saves the draw, however: If 4...Bxh2, then 5.Rd3+! Now king moves by Black cause stalemate because the rook is pinned and cannot move. If Black instead moves the bishop along the c1–h6 diagonal, White can parry this with a perpetual pursuit of the bishop with the rook, so Black cannot make any progress: 5...Bg5 6.Rd5 Kf4 7.Rd2 Bh6 8.Rd6 Kg5 9.Rd2 is one possible continuation. In

8424-497: The pawn stands on the king's file, in which case it is promoted to a mantri. If the piece is unavailable, the pawn remains unpromoted on its square. Chaturanga was introduced to the Middle East as shatranj around the 7th century. In shatranj, a pawn can be promoted only to a fers (equivalent to chaturanga's mantri). As chaturanga and shatranj spread to the western world and eastern Asia, as well as several other regions of

8528-427: The piece chosen is indicated after the move (for example, e1=Q or e1Q ). Castling is indicated by the special notations 0-0 (or O-O ) for kingside castling and 0-0-0 (or O-O-O ) for queenside castling. A move that places the opponent's king in check usually has the notation " + " added. There are no specific notations for discovered check or double check . Checkmate can be indicated by " # ". At

8632-443: The piece on d5). Ranks may be omitted if unambiguous, for example, exd (pawn on the e-file captures a piece somewhere on the d-file). A minority of publications use " : " to indicate a capture, and some omit the capture symbol altogether. In its most abbreviated form, exd5 may be rendered simply as ed . An en passant capture may optionally be marked with the notation " e.p. " If a pawn moves to its last rank, achieving promotion,

8736-555: The piece that occupies the first rank at the beginning of the game. In descriptive notation, the common opening move 1.e4 is rendered as "1.P-K4" ("pawn to king four"). Another system is ICCF numeric notation , recognized by the International Correspondence Chess Federation though its use is in decline. In tournament games, players are normally required to keep a score (record of the game). For this purpose, only algebraic notation

8840-416: The queen." In Italy, in the 18th and early 19th centuries, a pawn could be promoted only to a captured piece; if none of the promoting player's non-pawn pieces were captured, the pawn remained inactive until a piece became available, whereupon the pawn immediately assumed that piece's role. Philidor did not like the possibility of having two queens; in all editions of his book (1749 to 1790), he stated that

8944-429: The required piece is not available (e.g. a second queen) an inverted rook is sometimes used as a substitute, but this is not recognized in FIDE-sanctioned games. A game can be won in the following ways: There are several ways a game can end in a draw : In competition, chess games are played with a time control . If a player's time runs out before the game is completed, the game is automatically lost (provided

9048-402: The rook is under attack, or if the rook crosses an attacked square. When a pawn makes a two-step advance from its starting position and there is an opponent's pawn on a square next to the destination square on an adjacent file, then the opponent's pawn can capture it en passant ("in passing"), moving to the square the pawn passed over. This can be done only on the turn immediately following

9152-498: The rook on d1 with the pawn on c2 and said, "Queen!", indicating promotion to a queen. However, no queen was immediately available; it took some time for the arbiter to find a black queen. Kasparov later said that, if he had been more attentive, he would have promoted to a rook, using the black rook that had been taken on move 23. Kasparov's clock was running while the arbiter was getting a queen, so he started Karpov's clock. Karpov immediately played 25.Qxe4, and Kasparov told him that he

9256-445: The rook versus knight endgame, and White won on move 103. Zurakhov–Koblencs is a very rare example of a game with two significant promotions to knights; it also features a rare instance of a non-checking knight promotion. In the first diagram, Black threatens 57...Nxg7, and if White avoided this by promoting to queen, rook, or bishop, Black would reach a drawn position with the knight fork 57...Ne7+ and 58...Nxg8. The only winning move

9360-407: The same color. Usually, the pawn is chosen to be promoted to a queen, but in some cases, another piece is chosen; this is called underpromotion . In the animated diagram , the pawn on c7 can be advanced to the eighth rank and be promoted. There is no restriction on the piece promoted to, so it is possible to have more pieces of the same type than at the start of the game (e.g., two or more queens). If

9464-415: The square were unoccupied. Pieces are generally not permitted to move through squares occupied by pieces of either color, except for the knight and during castling. When a king is under immediate attack, it is said to be in check . A move in response to a check is legal only if it results in a position where the king is no longer in check. There are three ways to counter a check: Castling

9568-452: The standard system today is short-form algebraic notation . In this system, each square is uniquely identified by a set of coordinates, a – h for the files followed by 1 – 8 for the ranks. The usual format is The pieces are identified by their initials. In English, these are K (king), Q (queen), R (rook), B (bishop), and N (knight; N is used to avoid confusion with king). For example, Qg5 means "queen moves to

9672-429: The tie, a "sudden death" blitz playoff began; pairs of games would be played, and the first player to win a game and to win or draw the reverse would win the championship. The first blitz game was drawn. In the second game, Noritsyn had seconds remaining on the clock and was about to make his 50th move, an automatic promotion to a queen on d1. Noritsyn moved his pawn to d1, and not seeing a queen readily available (Sambuev

9776-484: The use of algebraic notation may cause confusion, since different languages employ different names (and therefore different initial letters) for the pieces, and some players may be unfamiliar with the Latin alphabet . Hence, the standard for transmitting moves by post or email is ICCF numeric notation , which identifies squares using numerical coordinates, and identifies both the departure and destination squares. For example,

9880-463: The world every year catering to players of all levels. Tournaments with a small number of players may use the round-robin format, in which every player plays one game against every other player. For a large number of players, the Swiss system may be used, in which each player is paired against an opponent who has the same (or as similar as possible) score in each round. In either case, a player's score

9984-747: The world's strongest players. Examples include Spain's Linares event, Monte Carlo's Melody Amber tournament, the Dortmund Sparkassen meeting, Sofia's M-tel Masters , and Wijk aan Zee's Tata Steel tournament. Regular team chess events include the Chess Olympiad and the European Team Chess Championship . The World Chess Solving Championship and World Correspondence Chess Championships include both team and individual events; these are held independently of FIDE. Promotion (chess) Promotion to

10088-400: The world, the promotion rule evolved. (See Regional games of the chess family section for more information.) After the queen gained its modern identity and abilities in the 15th century, replacing the farzin or ferz , some players objected to the fact that a king could have more than one queen via promotion. One old set of chess rules says, "A promoted pawn became a ferz, with the move of

10192-568: Was described in 1847 by Howard Staunton in his book The Chess-Player's Handbook . Staunton credits the idea to German authors, and in particular to "Alexandre, Jaenisch , and the Handbuch [ des Schachspiels ] ." While algebraic notation has been used in German and Russian chess literature since the 19th century, the Anglosphere was slow to adopt it, using descriptive notation for much of

10296-420: Was holding it in his hand ), grabbed a rook, turned it upside down, placed it on the promotion square, and announced, "Queen!" The arbiter immediately stepped in and ruled that the newly promoted piece was in fact a rook. Noritsyn subsequently lost the game and the title. Sambuev denied that he had deliberately concealed the queen in order to make it difficult for Noritsyn to execute the queen promotion correctly in

10400-463: Was in check , to which Karpov replied, "From what? It might be a bishop on d1." At this point, the clocks were stopped. The arbiter eventually found a black queen, and the game was backed up to the position after 24...cxd1=Q+. Kasparov's move was ruled to be illegal, as he had started his opponent's clock without placing the promoted piece on the square of promotion; as a result, Karpov was given two extra minutes on his clock. Regardless, Kasparov soon won

10504-611: Was invented by the Syrian player Philip Stamma in the 18th century. In the 19th century, it came into general use in German chess literature, and was subsequently adopted in Russian chess literature. In English-speaking countries, the parallel method of descriptive notation was generally used in chess publications until the 1980s. Similar descriptive systems were in use in Spain and France. A few players still use descriptive notation, but it

10608-452: Was proposed, but the tournament committee passed it by a large majority of votes. It did not catch on, however. Philip Sergeant wrote: A correspondent in the May [1865] Chess World ... did not exaggerate when he wrote that the B.C.A. Code had been very generally rejected by British amateurs, and emphatically condemned by the leading authorities of America, Germany, and France. In particular,

10712-545: Was used as late as 1862 for the third and final reprint. Under Law XIII of the 1862 "Code of Laws of the British Chess Association", a pawn reaching its last rank had the option to remain as a pawn instead of being promoted. In his 1889 work The Modern Chess Instructor , Wilhelm Steinitz , the first World Chess Champion , endorsed this rule, explaining its purpose by referring to the position diagrammed, which he cited from Johann Löwenthal 's Book of

10816-480: Was usual in the Middle Ages in Europe. A form of algebraic chess notation that seems to have been borrowed from Muslim chess, however, appeared in Europe in a 12th century manuscript referred to as "MS. Paris Fr. 1173 (PP.)". The files run from a to h , just as they do in the current standard algebraic notation. The ranks, however, are also designated by letters, with the exception of the 8th rank which

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