Chess notation - Definition and Overview

Until the 1970s, at least in English-speaking countries, chess games were recorded and published using descriptive chess notation. This is still used by a dwindling number of mainly older players who emphasise its practical advantages such as being more mistake-proof. However, it has been largely supplanted by the more compact algebraic chess notation. Several notations have emerged, based upon algebraic chess notation, for recording chess games in a format suitable for computer processing. Of these, Portable Game Notation (PGN) is the most common. At the other extreme, a notation which sacrifices playthroughability for concision is Steno-Chess (http://www.chessvariants.com/problems.dir/steno-chess.html) which minimises the number of characters required to store a game. Apart from recording games, there is also a notation Forsyth-Edwards Notation for recording specific positions. This is useful for adjourning a game to resume later or for conveying chess problem positions without a diagram.