Tune in tomorrow – same chess time, same chess channel!

Did that surprise you?

The problem is, given my work situation, I haven't had most of the basic luxuries like, say, a chessboard. But I get back this afternoon. So I'll move today.

Sorry for the delay! Life can be surprising. My friend's house burned down a few days ago.

I considered several more offensive moves to get out of this predicament, some of them I should have done earlier, but I decided to play it safe. Of course, the last time I did that, I lost. Happy thinking - I won't be thinking about the chess game - hopefully...

philo vs Zero
1. e4 e5
2. d4 exd4
3. Qxd4 Nc6
4. Qe3 Be7
5. e5 f6
6. exf6 Nxf6
7. Bb5 O-O
8. Qb3+ d5
9. Ne2 a6
10. Bd3 Ne5
11. Bf4 Nxd3
12. cxd3 Bg4
13. Nc3 b5
14. h3 Bh5
15. Rc1 c5
16. Qc2

what was move 7 O-O mean? i was trying to catch up but i dont get it...

i am cought up now.

quote:

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'USE THE CHAAAIIIIIRRRR!'

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I know this may look intimidating on first glance, but trust me when I strongly emphatically insist that this notation makes much more sense, and is much much clearer, than the old way.

This notation is broken into two simple parts.

The prefix (a capital letter) refers to the piece being moved. And the suffix which tells what square that piece is being moved to.

Nc3 = Knight to c3.

If the prefix is missing that means a pawn moved, and not a piece.

c3 = pawn moves to c3.

If you understand that much, you're most of the way there.

Now, the "trickier" part is the little symbols meant to help clarify what's going on in the game.

There are three of these: x, +, and #

If, when you move your piece, you happen to be capturing another piece. You stuff an "x" in between the prefix and suffix.

Nxc3 = Knight moves to c3 and captures the piece there.

If you are putting the enemy king into check, you add a "+" at the very end.

Bc3+ = Bishop moves to c3 and puts the king in check.

And, if you are checkmating your opponent, you add a "#" at the end.

Rc3# = Rook moves to c3 and checkmates the King.

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So every move follows this rubric:

(Piece being moved)("x" if capturing)(End Square)("+"/"#" for check/checkmate)

The only exception is castling.

Castling is written like this:

O-O for kingside castle
O-O-O for queenside.

I like to think of the O's involved as the King and Rook switching places. But this is really the only symbol set you have to just memorize.

And that's it.

That's literally all there is to it.

It may seem like a lot at first, but I guarantee that once you start using it, you'll never go back.

There's a reason why it replaced the old way. It's much much faster to read and make sense of.

In my case, I never sat down to learn it, I just started trying to use it one day and realized how intuitive it is.