Basics · lesson 1 of 13
Reading a move
e4, Nf3, O-O — what the letters actually mean.
Every chess move has a short name. Once you can read them you can follow any game, book, or engine line.
Pieces are letters: K king, Q queen, R rook, B bishop, N knight. Pawns get no letter at all — a move with no letter is always a pawn move.
A move is written as the piece and the square it lands on. Nf3 means a knight moves to f3. e4 means a pawn moves to e4.
The board is a grid. Files are letters a to h, counting from White's left. Ranks are numbers 1 to 8, counting from White's side. Every square has exactly one name, and it never changes.
Captures get an x: Bxe5 means a bishop takes something on e5. Castling is written O-O or O-O-O instead of a square, because two pieces move at once.
Two symbols you will see constantly: + means check, and # means checkmate. So Re8+ is a rook moving to e8 and giving check.
If two identical pieces could both reach the same square, you say where the piece came from: Rae1 means the rook from the a-file. Pawn promotions add an equals sign: e8=Q.
Worth remembering
- K Q R B N
- King, Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight
- no letter
- A pawn move — e4, d5, exd6
- x
- A capture — Bxe5
- +
- Check
- #
- Checkmate
- O-O / O-O-O
- Castling, kingside / queenside
- =Q
- A pawn promoting to a queen
Try it
White's rook slides across to e8 and gives check. How is that move written?
Once these make sense, your own games become the next lesson: analyse one on the Games tab and the review will point out where these ideas came up.