Chess notation: how to record a game

Every square has an address: a letter for the file (a to h, left to right from White's side) and a number for the rank (1 to 8, from White towards Black). A move is written as the piece letter plus the destination square.

Note that the knight is N, not K - the king already has that letter. It is the single most common mistake beginners make when they start writing games down.

Moves are numbered in pairs: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 means White played e4, Black replied e5, and so on.

Annotation marks - !, ?, !!, ??, !? and ?! - are commentary rather than part of the record. They belong in analysis, not on a tournament scoresheet.

• Classical chess: yes. Both players record every move, and the scoresheet is a tournament document.
• Rapid: usually not, though some official events with longer controls require it.
• Blitz: no. Nobody records, and no claim can rest on a scoresheet.
• Under time pressure there is an exemption. In classical play a player with less than five minutes left and no increment of thirty seconds or more may stop recording, and fills the moves in afterwards.

A practical consequence for organizers: if you want players to be able to claim repetitions, you need notation - and therefore a longer control - rapid rules, blitz rules.

Even where nobody requires it, recording your games is the cheapest improvement tool available.

• You can review the game. A game not written down cannot be analysed, and analysis is where most of the learning happens - how to review with an engine.
• Claims become possible. Threefold repetition and the fifty-move rule can only be verified against a record.
• It slows you down usefully. Writing the move takes a couple of seconds - which is often exactly the pause that prevents a blunder.
• You build an archive. Games from five years ago read very differently, and the difference is a measure of your progress.
• A coach can see your play. Without games there is nothing concrete for anyone to work with.

Formats vary, but the required fields are almost always the same:

• The header. Event, date, round, board number, and both players' names with their colours.
• Two move columns. Numbered lines with White and Black side by side.
• The result box. Filled in and signed by both players at the end.
• Signatures. Both players sign, which is what makes the sheet a document rather than a note.

Two habits worth building: write the move after you have played it, not before - writing first is effectively planning on paper and is not allowed - and fill in the result together, so there is nothing to dispute later.

For organizers, printed scoresheets are part of the standard document set of an event - the organizer's checklist.

Paper is no longer the only option, and for a club event the digital route is usually simpler.

• Electronic boards record automatically. Expensive, and used mainly for broadcasts rather than for the record itself.
• Electronic scoresheets exist at official events, under strict conditions about what the device may do.
• A phone is not a scoresheet. At any event with normal anti-cheating rules, recording moves on your own phone during a game is not permitted.
• For amateurs, paper plus a photograph works. Record on paper, photograph the sheet at the end, and you have an archive with no equipment at all.

Whatever the method, the tournament results themselves are a separate matter: they are entered by the organizer, and the app keeps the standings and tie-breaks - running an event in the app.