The algebraic notation is a method for recording and describing the moves in a game of chess.
Each square of the chessboard is identified by a unique coordinate pair—a letter and a number.
Letters are files (vertical columns) from a to h, from queenside (white's left) to kingside (white's right).
Numbers are ranks (horizontal rows) from 1 to 8, from white's side of the board.
Each piece, except the pawn, is identified by an uppercase letter. The pawn is rather identified by the absence of a letter.
Languages other than English may employ different letters.
Each move of a piece is indicated by the piece's uppercase letter, plus the coordinate of the destination square.
If it's a capture, an "x" is inserted immediately before the destination square. When a pawn makes the capture, the file from which the pawn departed is used to identify the pawn.
In case of en passant, the destination square is specified (not the square of the captured pawn) and, optionally, the suffix e.p. is added.
When two or more identical pieces can move to the same square, the piece's letter is followed by: the file of departure (if they differ), the rank of departure (if the files are the same but the ranks differ) or both the file and the rank (if neither alone is sufficient to identify the piece—which occurs only in rare cases where one or more pawns have promoted, resulting in a player having three or more identical pieces able to reach the same square).
When a pawn moves to the last rank and promotes, the piece promoted to is indicated at the end of the move notation. Sometimes. an equals sign (=) or parentheses are used.
Castling is either 0-0 (for kingside castling) or 0-0-0 (queenside castling).
While the FIDE Handbook, appendix C.13 uses the digit zero (0-0 and 0-0-0), PGN requires the uppercase letter O (O-O and O-O-O).
Usually, these symbols identify check and checkmate:
Sometimes, these others are seen:
These notes at the completion of moves indicates who won:
A game or series of moves is generally written in one of two ways.
Moves may be interspersed with commentary (annotations). When the score resumes with a Black move, an ellipsis (...) fills the position of the White move, for example:
Though not technically a part of algebraic notation, the following are some common symbols frequently used by annotators to give evaluative comment on a move:
Some variations apply, such as using a colon in place of x to identify a capture (B:e5 rather than Bxe5), or using symbols in place of uppercase letters (♞c6 rather than Nc6).