NOTATION

You're now half way through this book. At this point we're going to make a slight change to the system of notation we use. Instead of LONG ALGEBRAIC (or Standard) notation we are going to use SHORT ALGEBRAIC notation.

The only difference is that we omit the name of the square from which the piece moved, and the sign '-' for 'moves to'. So the Two Knights' Defence starts 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6. We'll still use the symbol 'x' for 'captures', so that the game may continue 4. Nc3 Nxe4. Pawn captures are written like this: 'exd4', meaning that a pawn on the e-file captures on d4. (Another method is simply to write the two file names: 'ed'.)

But you have to be a bit careful because sometimes two pieces of the same type can move to the same square.

XABCDEFGH
8rsn-+rvlk+(
7+l+-+pzp-'
6pwq-zp-sn-zp&
5+pzpPzp-+-%
4-+-+P+-+$
3+-zP-vLN+P#
2PzPL+QzPP+"
1tR-+-tRNmK-!
xabcdefgh
Diagram 130

Look at Diagram 130. If White want to move a Rook to d1 he must make it clear which one. He does this by naming the file from which the Rook moves: Red1 or Rad1. Now suppose he wants to move a Knight to d2. This time both Knights are on the f-file so neither Nd2 nor Nfd2 will do. Instead we use the rank instead of the file: N1d2 or N3d2. If it's Black's move and he wants to move his Knight from b8 to d7 he can write either Nbd7, or, less usually, N8d7.

You may prefer to use SHORT ALGEBRAIC notation when writing down your own games. You may find that it saves time. But do be careful to check whether two rooks or knights can move to the same square.