"Descriptive" Notation

Can anyone tell me how "descriptive" chess notation works? I have come across quite a few (outdated, but otherwise good) chess books that are useless to me due to their use of descriptive notation, and this really annoys me. I know it is no longer in current use, but I would like to know how it works so I can at least know what these books are talking about.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=descriptive+chess+notation

Format for each move is [piece name]-[destination square].

Piece names - Same as algebraic, barring perhaps "Kt" for knight in older books. I'll use N here, but Kt is the same, just more confusing-looking.

Destination square - Usually a letter (or 2) followed by a number. The letter tells you the file, the number tells the rank. The letters are of the piece that starts on that file at the beginning of the game; the number is the rank, as counted from the moving player's side of the board. So e4 is K4 for white, K5 for black; b6 is QN6 for white, QN3 for black, etc.

The files a, b, c through h are respectively QR, QN, QB, Q, K, KB, KN, KR. Fairly intuitive.

Captures are written as [something]x[something] which is pretty intuitive.

Castling is the usual O-O and O-O-O, en passant marked with e.p., checks marked with + or a cross or a dagger, depending on font.

A few examples. The Sicilian: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6. Translated, 1. P-K4 P-QB4 2. N-KB3 N-QB3 3. P-Q4 PxP 4. NxP N-B3.

Note 1...P-QB4 refers to black's pawn moving to c5, the file of the queen's bishop (QB) and the 4th rank counting from black's side (for white's move you count from white's side).

3...PxP 4. NxP is pretty obvious. There's only one capture in each case here so it's simple.

4...N-B3 refers to 4...Nf6. It can also be written 4...N-KB3, but in this case there is no ambiguity whether it's QB3 or KB3 that a knight is moving to, so the shorter N-B3 is preferred.

A few more tips to fully clarify.

- White knights on b1, f3; Nbd2 would be written N/1-Q2 (knight on first rank), N/N-Q2 (knight on knight's file, rarely seen) or QN-Q2 (if it's obvious that the knight on b1 started the game on b1, hence "queen's knight" to d2.)

- Black castled 0-0-0, moved king to b8, rooks now on d8 and h8; ...Rdf8 is ...R/Q-KB1 (rook on queen's file) or ...QR-KB1 (if the rook on d8 is obviously the one from a8 at the start.) Also note ...Rc8 is written ...R-QB1 as only one rook could go to c8, so no need to say which rook (but which B1, in this case QB1, needs to be specified).

- White pawn on b4, black pawns on a5, c5, no other pawn captures available; bxc5 is written PxBP (pawn takes bishop pawn). Simple.

- White pawns on b4, d4, black pawn on c5, no other pawn captures available; bxc5 is written NPxP (knight pawn takes pawn). Again, simple.

- White bishop on d3, black pawns on a6, h7, no other BxPs available; Bxh7 is written BxKRP. Simple.

- White bishops on d2, d3, black pawns on h6, h7, Bxh7 is written KBxP. For bishops it's pretty obvious usually which started on f1 and which on c1, barring underpromotions, for which I think B/3xP would be used, not that I've seen that strange case...

Holy sweet jesus.

A trick to keep the knights seperate is to have the knights facing toward the king at the start of the game.  Later, when the move is, say, KNxP, the knight with its head turned to the left is the KN.

BTW, I still record my games in DN.

Thanks for all of your help, but what about adding "ch" to the end of the notation of a move? What does that signify? I've seen this done several times in descriptive notation.

"ch" also indicates a check. e.g.

1. e4 f6 2. Qh5+ g6

1. P-K4 P-KB3 2. Q-R5ch P-N3.

You don't understand N-Q4? The knight moved to the 4th rank of the black queen's file (d5 in algebraic).