How/where can I learn how to read chess games like below:

I get some of it e.d Qa4 = Queen to square A4 but I don't know what some of the others mean e.g Nxf4 exf5 etc.  I know this prob seems really dumb to all u experts and I do apologise - but I have only been playing 3 days :) any help much appricaited :)

Thanks

Heather :)

The capital letters are pieces, so B= bishop, N=Knight, K=king, Q=queen, and R=rook. A capture is shown by an "x," castling kingside is shown as 0-0, and castling queenside is shown as 0-0-0.

If a move has no "letter," but only coordinates, it means a pawn is being moved. So in the game above, it goes like this:

White pawn to e4...black pawn to c5
White knight to f3...black knight to c6
White pawn to d4...black's pawn captures on d4
White's knight captures on d4...black knight to f6

And so on. Sometimes if two pieces could move to the same square, there's an additional letter added. So Rae1 would mean "the rook on the a-file moves to e1."

That's the 10-second lesson...there's more to know, but that will get you through almost everything.

and...

+ is check and ++ is checkmate, but it you probaly already know.

and take a look at the "read" link, "chessopedia", "algebraic notation".

the explain above is the better, anyway.

+ as check is true, but i've never seen ++ as checkmate, i've always seen it as #.

Check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_chess_notation

Thats how I learned.  Once you learn the basics, start going over your games anf follow along with each move.  With a little practice it becomes easy.

I use # on computer because it's easy, but with a pen in the hand i'd rather do ++

Chess for dummies is a good resource for stuff like this.  If your new to chess it is an indespensible resource. Not just for chess notation but for just about anything you would want to know starting out.  How to start, where to play who to play, and lingo and all kinds of stuff like that.

Thanks for all your help and advice guys, will certainly look into all the stuff u have recommended, love the idea of chess for dummies haha thats me alright, one day I will win a game :)

hehe,  I got that book after a freind re-introduced me to the joys of chess.   I took the book family gathering one time, My brother-in-law started making fun of me for it (I was half way through it at the time) I played him a game and beat the tar out of him. He (or she) that laughs last, laughs hardest.

Chess Notation

Chess notation is used to help keep track of movement on a chess board. It is an important idea to understand for anyone wishing to become proficient in chess. It helps computers to amass databases. It helps players to understand various openings. It lends clarity to conversations about chess.

There are actually two types of chess notation. The older style is called descriptive notation. It is based on the begining position of pieces and their relationship with one another. As it sometimes proved confusing when games were recorded and is not precise (as each square has two names) it has been largely replaced in recent years by a system known as algebraic notation.

Algebraic notation is more clear to computers, and once it is digested by the individual player, it can be just as clear in conversation. As noted above, the ultimate aim of chess notation is to be able to record games. This website will explain both types of chess notation and illustrate how a game is recorded in algebraic notation.

http://www.indepthinfo.com/chess-notation/index.shtml

Descriptive Notation
By: Raymond Roy

When we left off in Basics of Chess we briefly touched on what is called, 'Notation.' So first, lets review what notation is. Notation is a method of writting about chess moves without having to use diagrams to show the moves on a chess board. By using notation, the author is given the flexibility to describe a large number of chess games in a simple compact format. The main advantage of learning chess notation is that chess notation leaves more room for game analysis. That is; when a student, or chess enthusists studies chess strategies such as opening moves, knight forks, pins, discoveries, and things of this nature. Later on we will go over basic chess strategies and cover these topics, but first things first, let's talk about and learn descriptive notations.

Let's Begin.
To start with, there are two forms of chess notation, descriptive notation, and algebraic notation. All aspiring chess players understanding the two chess notation styles. These styles are easy to learn, and they are tatical skills used to improve upon your game strategy. For the most part, descriptive notation is old school beging the oldest form of chess notation. that is, it is generally used in older chess books and magazines. There is however, some modern chess literature using this notation style. These are the two main reasons to include and to learn description notation. New players should learn to read chess notation in order to read chess literature and communicate about the game properly.

Naming the pieces.

The names of each piece in descriptive notation is based on its initial. English speaking players use the following:
K = King
Q = Queen
R = Rook
B = Bishop
N = Knight
P = Pawn

Naming squares and chessmen on the chessboard.

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'. The board is divided into two halves, the queenside and the kingside. Names of squares are different depending on whose turn it is. The names of the squares are based on the name of the piece that sits in the home row at the start, and differentiated from each other by whether they belong to the kingside or queenside.

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 squares are always numbered by rank, away from the player (1 being closest and 8 far away). 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. The chessboard at the bottome show the different forms of notation and the view from both, white and black.

While this system makes notating the game equally easy for White and Black, it can get confusing with each square essentially having two names. A move is written by first naming the piece that is moving, indicating whether it is a regular move indicated by a dash '-', or a capture indicated by a lower case 'x', and finally indicating the arrival square or the piece being captured. All letters for the pieces and squares are written in upper case. So, for example, P-K4 means "take a pawn and move it to K4". NxQ means "Knight takes Queen".

While this system was in use for most of this century, it was eventually replaced by algebraic because of the confusion over the names of squares and the extent to which ambiguities in notation would arise. Also, many older players prefer this and will use it, so it has by no means died out, but it is definitely out of favor, and no longer the official notation of chess.

Notation for moves.

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.

Move that is not a capture.

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

Capture.

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. QxN (queen captures knight).

Castling.

The notation 0-0 is used for castling kingside and 0-0-0 for castling queenside.
Promotion.
Parentheses are used to indicate promotion, with the piece resulting from the promotion in parentheses: P-R8(Q). Sometimes an equal sign is used instead, as in P-R8=Q.

Special terms.

Special indicators that are appended to the move include e.p. (en passant), ch or + (check), mate or ++ (checkmate), resigns, and draw.

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. Another method in making the move unambiguous, 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.

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.

Advantages

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 seventh is worth two on the fifth" makes sense from both Black's perspective as well as White's perspective.

Disadvantages

Confusion can arise because the squares are named differently. Errors may be made when not realizing that a move is ambiguous. 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.

Algebraic Notation
By: Raymond Roy

In Basics of Chess we learned the layout of the chessboard and breifly touched on notation. We further learned Descriptive Notation and now it is time to move on to Algebraic Notation.

Algebraic chess notation is used to record and describe the moves in a game of chess. It is now standard among all chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers. It replaced the older system of descriptive chess notation, which was standard in the 19th century, and was sporadically used as recently as the 1980s or 1990s.

Naming the Chessboard

Set up the board in the starting position, so that you are on the White side. Each square of the chessboard is identified with a unique pair of a letter and a number. The vertical files are labelled a through h, from White's left, that is, the queenside to his right. Similarly, the horizontal ranks are numbered from 1 to 8, starting from White's home rank. Each square of the board, then, is uniquely identified by its file letter and rank number. The white king, for example, starts the game on square e1. The black knight on b8 can move to a6 and c6.

In algebraic notation, each square has one, and only one name regardless if you are looking from White's side of the board or Black's side of the board.

Square names are given in lower-case letters while chess piece abbreviations are given in uppercase letters.

Naming the Chess Pieces

Note: Although you can use the letter P for pawn, most people don't put in a "piece" name for a pawn move.

Notation for Moves

Example

When a piece makes a capture, an x is inserted between the initial and the destination square. For example, Bxe5 (bishop captures the piece on e5). When a pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn departed is used in place of a piece initial. For example, exd5 (pawn on the e-file captures the piece on d5). Sometimes when it is unambiguous, a pawn capture is indicated only by the files, e.g. exd, ed5 or ed.

The following short-hand notations are frequently used to comment moves:

Examples

A colon (:) is sometimes used instead of an x, either in the same place the x would go (B:e5) or after the move (Be5:). En passant captures (see pawn) are specified by the capturing pawn's file of departure, the x, and the square to which it moves (not the location of the captured pawn), optionally followed by the notation "e.p." It is never necessary to specify that a capture was en passant because a capture from the same file but not en passant would have a different destination square. Within the SAN (Standard Algebraic Notation) standard, the "x" capture indication is always required while the "e.p." en passant move suffix indication is always forbidden.

Examples of Writting Algebraic Notaion

You will see principally two types of noting moves made during a game regardless of the method of chess notation type used. The first type of noting moves is a straight forward linear notation format across the lines of a page where the number represents the number of the move followed by White's move and then Black's move, in a sequential repeating descending order. For example, and using the initial opening moves (pawn advances) by White and Black in setting up the French Defense:

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5

Although the use of periods after the move number is the preferred style of noting the move numbers, often you may see it written without the periods as well. Additionally, when a period after a move number is used then the use of a space after the period and before the White's move notation is optional. There is always a space between White's and Black's move notations, and in the straight linear format there is always a space between Black's move notation and the following move number. To continue further using the standard French Defense after four moves by White and Black, Algebraic Notation for a straight linear format would be as follows:

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. Nf3 Nc6 (with space after period)
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.Nf3 Nc6 (without space after period)

Basic Rule for Noting Moving Pieces

A move by a piece not involving a capture is noted by using the upper case/capitalized letter assigned to the piece followed by the lower case letter of the file and the number of the rank of the square to which the piece is moved. An example: if White's White Bishop is moved from its home square at f8 to the square at b5, this is noted as Bb5.

Basic Rule for Noting Capture by a Piece

A capture by a piece is noted by using the upper case/capitalized letter assigned to the piece followed by the multiplication symbol/lower case x followed by the lower case letter of the file and the number of the rank of the square to which the piece is moved and does the capture. An example: if White's White Bishop is moved from it home square at f8 to the square at b5, which has a Black pawn on it and thus White's Bishop does a capture of that pawn, this is noted as Bxb5.

Disambiguating Moves

If two (or more) identical pieces can move to the same square, the piece's initial is followed by (in descending order of preference):

The file of departure if they differ;
The rank of departure if the files are the same but the ranks differ;
Both the file and rank if neither alone uniquely defines the piece (after a pawn promotion, if three or more of the same piece able to reach the square). I.e., with two knights on g1 and d2, either of which might move to f3, the move is indicated as Ngf3 or Ndf3, as appropriate. With two knights on g5 and g1, the moves are N5f3 or N1f3. As above, an x may be used to indicate a capture: for example, N5xf3.

Pawn Promotion

You may remember in descriptive notion parentheses are used to indicate promotion, with the piece resulting from the promotion in parentheses: P-R8(Q). Sometimes an equal sign is used instead, as in P-R8=Q.

With the use of computers, has tended to standardize the notation on the shortest format, so a Queen would be b8Q. If instead you promote a pawn to a rook it would be noted as b8R.

End of Game

The notation 1-0 at the end of the moves indicates that white won, 0-1 indicates that black won, and ½-½ indicates a draw.