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Why Record All My Chess Games?
Having each player record the moves for both sides is required in many tournaments.
By recording each of your games, you improve your ability to quickly and accurately record moves, lessening the chance for a mistake in tournaments.
Having records of your games is helpful in improving the quality of your play by allowing you to study, and learn from, your mistakes.
It can be helpful to have a 'database' about opponent(s) games, especially in a club environment. You can learn the styles of your opponents, determine counters to their preferred openings, and generally improve your game by learning from them.
To download a scoresheet in MS Excel format, click here.
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Algebraic Notation
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Descriptive Notation
Descriptive notation was used to record chess games before the rise of algebraic notation.
There are still many good reference books that use descriptive notation, so it can be
useful to know it. To learn more about descriptive notation,
click here.
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PGN Notation
Most computer chess games, as well as most chess database software, can read
games that are saved in a common format called 'PGN'. These are text files
with the extension '.pgn'. PGN format is simply a set of rules for saving
games to the .pgn text files in accordance with commonly accepted standards.
For a printable list of the guidelines, click here.
These instructions were made available through the courtesy of
IECC
(the International Email Chess Club).
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Abbreviations for Pieces
In algebraic notation, these are the abbreviations used for each piece:
King : K
Queen : Q
Bishop : B
Knight : N
Rook : R
Pawn : There is no abbreviation used for pawns.
O-O : Castle to the King's side
O-O-O : Castle to the Queen's side
x : Denotes a capture (ex: Qxa1 - the Queen captures whatever piece was on a1)
+ : check (ex: Nd3+ - the Knight moves to d3 and puts the King in check)
++ : checkmate (ex:Bc3++ - the Bishop moves to c3, giving checkmate)
= : pawn promotion (ex: e8=Q - the pawn moves to e8, becoming a Queen)
Board Layout
The board is placed so that there is a dark square in each player's left corner. If the board
has letters and numbers printed on its edges, then square 'a1' goes to White's left corner.
The board is divided into eight ranks, or rows, (numbered 1 to 8) and eight files, or columns, (lettered a to h).
Therefore, each square of the board can be called by a unique letter & number combination.
There is only one square called 'a1', and only one square called 'h3', so the algebraic notation
is very simple to learn and use.
Diagram 1
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At the start of each game, the pieces are placed as shown in Diagram 2. An easy way to
remember where to place the King and Queen is this: Queen's go on their own color
square - White Queen on white, and Black Queen on black.
Diagram 2
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Describing Moves
To learn algebraic notation, we'll walk through part of an example game.
White moves first, and decides to move his pawn to e4. Black responds by playing his pawn
to e5 (see Diagram 3).
These moves would be recorded on the scoresheet like this: 1.e4 e5.
Note that when recording pawn moves there is no abbreviation for the pawn. However, when a
piece other than a pawn is moved the abbreviation for that piece is ALWAYS used (for
examples, see later moves in this sample game).
Diagram 3
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Next white moves his Knight to f3, and Black moves his Knight to c6 (see Diagram 4). These
moves would be recorded on the scoresheet like this: 2.Nf3 Nc6.
Any time a piece other than a pawn is moved, the piece's abbreviation is used.
Diagram 4
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Now white moves his pawn to c3, and Black moves his Bishop to e7 (see Diagram 5). These moves
would be recorded on the scoresheet like this: 3.c3 Be7.
Diagram 5
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Next white moves his pawn to d4, and Black captures the d4 pawn with his e5 pawn (see Diagram 6 and Diagram 7). These moves
would be recorded on the scoresheet like this: 4.d4 exd4.
In this case the pawn was making the capture, so again no abbreviation was used for the pawn.
But, since more than one Black piece could capture the pawn on d4, the file name from
which the capture was made ('e') was written.
Diagram 6
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Diagram 7
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White now captures the pawn on d4 with his pawn on c3, and then Black moves his pawn to d6 (see
Diagram 8). These moves would be recorded on the scoresheet like this: 5.cxd4 d6.
Diagram 8
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Now White moves his Bishop to c4, and Black moves his Knight to f6 (see Diagram 9).
These moves would be recorded on the scoresheet like this: 6.Bc4 Nf6.
Diagram 9
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Next White moves his Knight to c3, and Black moves his Bishop to g4 (see Diagram 10).
These moves would be recorded on the scoresheet like this: 7.Nc3 Bg4.
Diagram 10
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Next White castles his King to the King's side, and Black moves his Queen to d7 (see Diagram 11).
These moves would be recorded on the scoresheet like this: 8.O-O Qd7.
Diagram 11
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Now White moves his Bishop to g5, and Black castles his King to the Queen's side (see Diagram 12).
These moves would be recorded on the scoresheet like this:
9.Bg5 O-O-O.
Diagram 12
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Finally, White moves his Queen to d2, and Black moves his Rook on h8 to e8 (see Diagram 13).
Note that since Black has TWO Rooks that can reach the square e8, the letter 'h' is used to show
which column the Rook to be moved started from. These moves would be recorded on the scoresheet like this: 10.Qd2 Rhe8.
Diagram 13
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Keeping a Scoresheet
Keeping a scoresheet is a fairly simple exercise, especially when you're using algebraic notation.
To learn how to record a game on a scoresheet, we'll use the sample game above. Here are the
first ten moves:
1.e4 e5
2.Nf3 c6
3.c3 Be7
4.d4 exd4
5.cxd4 d6
6.Bc4 Nf6
7.Nc3 Bg4
8.O-O Qd7
9.Bg5 O-O-O
10.Qd2 Rhe8
Assuming you're using the scoresheet found here, this is what the scoreshet would
look like when filled out:
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