How to get better at reading chess notation

Hello, I just started playing on this website and I'd like to get better at chess.  Unfortunately, when I try to learn certain openings or if I try to explain a certain move, I fail miserably b/c I have no idea how to describe the notation. If someone says e4...I'll have a blank look on my face.  

I've played chess for sometime now but I lack in a lot of theory knowledge b/c I've been hindered by the lack of how to read those funny notations

Whenever you read anything about chess, you shouldn't just read it. Get out a board (or set one up on the computer) and play along. You'll find it gets easier with time to imagine based on the notation, but the best way to process the material is to play along.

Also, if you don't already have something like this, get one of the free simple programs like chesspad and set the options so that the moves are shown in notation on the right as you make them on the board.  When you're just practicing moves or reviewing a game you can check back and forth between the board and the notated moves.  I used to make it a point to say the moves outloud when I moved them on the computer chess board-- "Bishop to g5" or "Knight to c3".

After a while you automatically associate certain squares with certain common actions. f7 is the Black King's vulnerable square. g5 is the square White's dark Bishop uses to pin Black's Knight against his Queen. b5 is the "Ruy Lopez" square (the square White's Bishop moves to on his 3rd move).  With time you build up associations like this in your head and it becomes easier to visualize move and line notations without a board.  But using a board is still best, especially for complex positions or lines that extend very many moves.

To get better at learning the notations I created my own techniques, like first creating a anchor point of the 2 middle rows/columns as  4 & 5, C & E respectively. Burning this into your brain early helps you break the board up into smaller sections so it doesn't seem so daunting.

After that it's just a matter of familiarizing yourself with the board and the notation. I practice simply by randomly picking out spots on the board and trying to work out the notation as quickly as I can, and repeat this over and over. Or get a chess book and try to follow the moves without referencing the notations on the illustrations (though I usually do this when already looking through the book, not solely for practicing notation). It works for me. Don't know how effective this will be for anyone else

Try having a board with the alphabets and numbers on the side while reading the quotation

no capital letter = pawn move

N = knight

B= bishop

K= king

Q= queen

R= rook

X= something was captured

I figured out how to read the notation after seeing diagrams on the forum and the notations as pieces move on livechess

Thank you for the valulable comments, I'll try them out when I read more chess notation

Hi all! I don't know if this has been resolved but here is my 2 cents

It helps to learn how to notate your games realtime. As you play them, keep score(write out the moves on a chess score card) Don't look at the computer's list, but try to write your's and your opponents and then check against the computer. It helps to play through games this way with a real board. So when you see the notation, make the move. In other words pull up a game in chess notation. Play through it on a real board, or computer board that doesn't make the move for you. Manually do it all.  Check it with the computer if you have doubts.  For example: choose a game, set the board to manual on the computer(or use real board), play the moves as you read them, any questions, reveal the computer's listing, it should be the same as the one you are reading if you are making the moves correctly.It's like anything, it takes practice.

I think playing through games manually by following the chess notation is the most efficient, and mabey better, as you are learning good games as well. It's fun to play/read through a game and experience cool moves and combos! It's like a story, each game is.

We are so use to the computer keeping track, but back in a day, they used to have to write the moves down.  Somebody might knock over pieces!

Try and practice locating the coordinates with either of these two links. It's two games where you find them in shortest time.
https://en.lichess.org/training/coordinate
http://goo.gl/QX1Ytx

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