Chess Notation Trainer

Drill squares and moves until reading notation stops being work.

By Nethanel Bar, Co-founder & CEO

Last updated August 29, 2026

Ready to learn how the game is actually played?

The Coddy chess course starts from the setup and takes you through the openings, tactics and endgames - one interactive position at a time.

Start the chess course

Notation is a reading skill, so practise it

Chess notation is a coordinate system and nothing more. Files are letters a to h, ranks are numbers 1 to 8, and every square is one of each: e4, g7, a1. A move is the piece's letter plus where it went, so Nf3 is a knight to f3 and e4 is a pawn to e4, because pawns are the one piece written without a letter. That is the whole system, and it takes about ten minutes to understand.

Understanding it and reading it fluently are different things. Every book, every annotation, every video description and every engine line is written in notation, and stopping to count files with a finger is the difference between following a game and decoding it. What closes that gap is not more explanation but repetition - which is exactly what a page of tables cannot give you.

So this page is three drills instead. Name a square from the board, write a real move from the position it was played in, or take a FEN apart field by field on a board that redraws as you type. Nothing is marked on how you typed it: O-O and 0-0 are the same move, and the check mark at the end is never required.

What every symbol means

A square is a file letter then a rank number, always in that order: e4, never 4e. The files run a to h from White's left, and the ranks run 1 to 8 away from White - so White's back rank is 1 and Black's is 8, whichever side of the board you happen to be sitting on.
A move is the piece letter plus the destination: Nf3, Qd8, Ke2. The letters are K, Q, R, B and N - knight takes N because the king already has K. A pawn move has no letter at all, so e4 is unambiguously a pawn.
An x means a capture. A pawn capture names the file the pawn came from, because it has no letter of its own: exd5 is the e-pawn taking on d5.
When two identical pieces could reach the same square, the notation adds whatever is needed to tell them apart - the file if that is enough (Rae1), the rank if it is not (R1a3), and both in the rare case where neither alone works.
The tails are commentary: + is check, # is checkmate, =Q is what a pawn promoted to, and ! or ? are one player's opinion of the move rather than part of it. Castling is written O-O kingside and O-O-O queenside - three characters for the longer castle, which is the mnemonic.
Readable and valid are different questions about a FEN. A string with two white kings, or with a seventh field bolted on, still draws a board perfectly well - and every engine will still refuse it. The reader here says which of the two you have.

How to use the trainer

Start with squares
A square lights up and you type its name; or press Ask me to find the square and it works the other way, naming one for you to tap. Both directions matter, because reading a move and playing one need opposite skills.
Move on to writing moves
A real position appears with a move drawn on it as an arrow, and you write what that move is called. The answer is marked on the move, not the typing - the check mark is optional and zeros for castling are accepted.
Read the explanation, not just the verdict
Every answer comes with the reason: which file and rank the square is on and what colour it is; or the move taken apart character by character, so you can see what each part of it was doing.
Then take a FEN apart
Paste any FEN - from an analysis board, a puzzle, a game - and the board redraws as you type while each of the six fields is explained beside it. It is the fastest way to stop finding FEN strings intimidating.

Every symbol in algebraic notation

The complete vocabulary. There is nothing else to learn - every move ever recorded is built from these.

Symbol	Means	Example
K	King	Kf1
Q	Queen	Qd8
R	Rook	Rae1
B	Bishop	Bb5
N	Knight	Nf3
x	Captures	Bxc6
+	Check	Qh5+
#	Checkmate	Qf7#
=Q	Promotes to a queen	e8=Q
O-O	Castles kingside	O-O
O-O-O	Castles queenside	O-O-O

Reading real notation

The starting position, written out

FEN

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1

Read the first field from rank 8 down: rnbqkbnr is Black's back rank, the 8s are the four empty ranks in the middle, and RNBQKBNR is White's. Then w for White to move, KQkq for all four castling rights still standing, a dash because there is no en passant square, and 0 1 for the halfmove clock and the move number.

After 1. e4

FEN

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq e3 0 1

Two things changed and one appeared. The pawn moved, so the fourth rank now reads 4P3 - four empty squares, a white pawn, three empty. The side to move is b. And the en passant field is now e3, not e4: it names the square the pawn PASSED OVER, which is where a capturing pawn would land.

Five moves of the Ruy Lopez

PGN

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. O-O

Numbered pairs, White then Black. 3. Bb5 is the bishop that names the opening; 4. Bxc6 is that bishop capturing on c6, and dxc6 is Black recapturing with the d-pawn - the pawn capture names the file it came from because a pawn has no letter. 5. O-O is castling kingside.

A rook endgame position

FEN

8/5pk1/6p1/7p/8/6P1/5PKP/3R4 w - - 0 34

A dash in the castling field means neither side may castle any more - here because both kings have already moved. The 0 34 at the end says no capture or pawn move has happened yet in the count towards the fifty-move rule, and that it is White's 34th move.

Common mistakes

Writing the rank first. It is always the letter then the number: e4, not 4e. Every square name in every book follows that order without exception.
Confusing b as a file with B as a bishop. Case is the whole difference: bxc5 is the b-pawn capturing, Bxc5 is the bishop. This is the one place where typing carelessly changes which move you meant.
Reading FEN ranks upward. The first field starts at rank EIGHT and works down to rank one, which is the opposite of how the board is usually described. Everything else about a FEN follows from getting that right.
Thinking the en passant field means a pawn can be captured this move. It names the square a pawn just passed over, whether or not any pawn is in a position to take it - which is why it appears after every double step.
Assuming the halfmove clock counts moves. It counts half-moves since the last capture or pawn push, for the fifty-move rule - so it resets constantly in the opening and climbs only in quiet endgames.
Skipping the disambiguation because the move seems obvious. Rae1 and Rfe1 are different moves, and notation that leaves out which rook is notation that cannot be replayed.

Chess notation FAQ

How do you read chess notation?

Take the move a character at a time. A capital letter is the piece - K, Q, R, B or N - and no letter means a pawn. An x means a capture. The last two characters are almost always the destination square: a file letter a to h and a rank number 1 to 8. Anything after that is commentary: + for check, # for mate, =Q for what a pawn became.

Why is the knight written N and not K?

Because the king already has K, and the king is the piece you cannot afford to confuse. N is simply the next distinctive letter in the word. Most languages do the same thing with their own initials - the German S for Springer, the French C for cavalier - which is why a foreign scoresheet still looks readable but is not.

What is FEN in chess?

Forsyth-Edwards Notation: one line of text that describes an entire position. Six fields separated by spaces - the pieces, whose move it is, castling rights, the en passant square, the halfmove clock and the move number. Every analysis board and engine accepts one, which is why it is worth being able to read.

How do you write castling?

O-O for kingside and O-O-O for queenside, with capital letter O rather than zeros - though zeros are so common that no one will misunderstand you, and this trainer accepts both. The longer castle gets the longer symbol, which is all you need to remember.

What does e.p. mean in chess notation?

En passant - a pawn capturing another pawn that has just moved two squares, as though it had only moved one. It is written like any other pawn capture, exd6 for instance, sometimes with e.p. added afterwards for clarity. The suffix is optional and modern notation usually leaves it out.

What is the difference between algebraic and descriptive notation?

Algebraic names squares from a fixed grid: e4 is e4 for both players. Descriptive - the older system, with moves like P-K4 - named squares relative to whoever was moving, so the same square had two names. Algebraic has been the standard since the 1970s; descriptive only turns up in old books.

How can I get faster at reading notation?

Drill the squares until naming one is instant, then practise writing moves from real positions. The bottleneck is almost never understanding the rules of notation - it is the half-second spent counting files, and only repetition removes that.

Do I need to write notation to play in a tournament?

In most rated over-the-board events, yes: both players are required to keep a scoresheet, and it is the record that settles claims about repetition and the fifty-move rule. It is one of the most practical reasons to become fluent rather than merely competent.

More chess tools

Chess Board Setup

Place every piece on a real board and have your setup checked square by square.

Chess Opening Explorer

Walk the opening tree move by move and see which openings you are still in.

Next Chess Move

Get the best move in any position, drawn on the board and explained in words.

Chess Timer

A two-player clock with increment, delay and every standard time control.

Coddy programming languages illustration

Learn chess with Coddy

GET STARTED