Descriptive chess notation, or just descriptive notation is a notation for recording chess games, and at one time was the most popular notation for doing so. It has been superseded by abbreviated algebraic notation, but is still important for understanding older chess books. Descriptive notation exists in many language-based variants, the most prevalent being English descriptive notation and Spanish descriptive notation.

Naming the pieces

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Each piece's name in descriptive notation is based on its initial. English speaking players use K for king, Q for queen, R for rook, B for bishop, N or Kt for knight, and P for pawn. Spanish speakers use R for king, D for queen, T for rook, A for bishop, C for knight, and P for pawn.

Naming squares on the board

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In descriptive chess notation each square has two names, depending on black's or white's viewpoint. Each file is given a name corresponding with the piece that occupies the first rank at the start of the game. Thus the queen's file is named 'Q' and the king's file is named 'K'. Since there are two each of the remaining pieces on the first rank, it is necessary to distinguish between them. The pieces on the queen's side of the board (left for white, right for black) are named with respect to the queen i.e. 'queen's rook', 'queen's knight' and 'queen's bishop' and have the shortened names 'QR', 'QN' and 'QB' respectively. Similarly, the pieces on the king's side (right for white, left for black) are named with respect to the king i.e. 'king's rook', 'king's knight' and 'king's bishop' and have the shortened names 'KR', 'KN' and 'KB' respectively. The rank is given a number, ranging from 1 to 8, with rank 1 being closest to the player. This method of naming the squares means that each square has one name from white's point of view and another from black's. For instance, the bottom left square ('a1' in algebraic chess notation) is called "queen's rook 1" (QR1) by white and "queen's rook 8" (QR8) by black.

The Spanish language orders possessives reverse that of English ("queen's rook" is "rook of queen") and places the rank before the file, so square 'a1' becomes '1TD' to white and '8TD' to black.

Notation for moves

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Each move of a piece is indicated by a sequence of characters. Castling has its own sequence of characters and special indicators are added to the end of the sequence if relevant.

A move without capture is represented by the piece's name, a hyphen and the square at the end of the move e.g. Kt-QB3 (knight to queen's bishop 3).

A move with capture is represented by the piece's name, a cross (x) and the destination square is identified by the name of the piece captured e.g. QxKt (queen captures knight).

Special indicators that are appended to the move include e.p. (en passant), Ch (Check), Mate (Checkmate), Resign, and Draw.

The sequence 0-0 is used for a king side castle and 0-0-0 for a queen side castle.

Typically, the move will record only enough information to make the move unambiguous. A pawn capturing a pawn may be shown as PxP if it is the only one possible, or as BPxP if only one of the player's Bishop's Pawns can capture another pawn, or as QBPxP, or PxQBP, or other such variations.

As a last resort, the location of a capture or the starting point of a move may also be shown, delimited with parentheses or a slash, as BxN/QB6, or R(R3)-Q3. Sometimes only the rank or file is indicated, as R(6)xN.

Parentheses are also used to indicate promotion: P-R8(Q).

When listing the moves of a game, first the move number is written, then the move by white followed by the move by black. If there's no appropriate white move to use (e.g., if the moves are interrupted by commentary) then an ellipses ... is used in its place.

In Spanish descriptive notation the hyphen is not needed, as the rank serves as separator. So the Sicilian opening would be written 1. P4R P4AD.

Advantages

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By identifying each square with reference to the player on move, descriptive notation better reflects the symmetry of the game's starting position ("both players opened with P-K4 and planned to play B-KN2 as soon as possible"), and because the pieces captured are named, it is easy to skim over a game record and see which ones have been taken at any particular point.

The maxim that a pawn on the 7th is worth two on the 5th makes sense from both Black's perspective as well as White's perspective.

Disadvantages

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Confusion can arise because the squares are named differently. In comparison, abbreviated algebraic notation represents the same moves with fewer characters, on average, and can avoid confusion since it always represents the same square in the same way.

Chess notation | Περιγραφική σκακιστική γραφή | Notación descriptiva | Opisni šahovski zapis | Notation descriptive (jeu d'échecs)