Chess Notation Part 3 – Playing Over a Game

Good Moves and Bad Moves

When you are reading a chess book, you will often find exclamation points or question marks (or some combination of exclamation points and question marks) after certain moves. These are generally accepted indications of good moves and bad moves. Here’s the normal meaning for these symbols:

• ? = bad move
• ?? = really bad or losing move
• ! = good move
• !! = brilliant move
• ?! = questionable move, probably bad
• !? = interesting move, possibly good

Ellipses …

When you see ellipses (the three dots …), that usually means that a move that was played is being omitted from the notation. It is most often used in a book or magazine before or after a diagram to indicate that it is Black’s move. For example, in the following diagram, it is Black’s move. This would be indicated in the following manner before the diagram:

1.e4 …

1… e5

The ellipses in the move before the diagram indicates that it is Black to move in the diagram. The ellipses after the diagram indicate that it is Black who has moved.

Other symbols

Some chess books (such as the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings) employ special symbols to indicate more detailed evaluations of positions in a single symbol. Many of those books are addressed to international readership and will usually have an explanation of the symbols somewhere in the book.

The moves for a complete game.

Here is an interesting game with a strong attack against the castled king and the sacrifice of a couple of pieces to maintain the attack. If you want to practice using chess notation, set up a chess board and play the moves listed below and check the position you get on your board against the diagrams shown below.

1. e4 c6
2. d4 d5
3. exd5 cxd5
4. Bd3 Nc6
5. c3 Nf6
6. Bf4 e6
7. Nf3 Be7
8. O-O a5
9. Nbd2 O-O
10. Re1 b6

11. Ne5 Bb7
12. Ndf3 Re8
13. Qc2 g6?
14. Nxf7! Kxf7
15. Ng5+ Kg8
16. Bxg6! Rc8??
17. Bxh7+ Black resigns 1-0

If you’re practicing reading chess notation, compare the position above with the position you get on your chess board. After you’ve done that, try to work out why Black resigned. Black has four legal moves, and you should work out the best line for White after each possibility. (Don’t cheat … work out the answer. But then check your work with the answer posted in the comments. Look for Rj’s post and my response.)

If you’re interested in a great book for beginning chess players, check out Learn Chess: A Complete Course. I highly recommend it!