Algebraic Notation:

Co-ordinates for the Squares on the Chessboard

You may have come across this form of notation when playing 'Battleships'.

You place your ships on a grid marked with letters and numbers - you then locate the squares using those co-ordinates.

In order to use algebraic notation in Chess our chessboard needs to be numbered and lettered. It is done as shown in the diagram below.

You will see that the files on the board are labelled with the letters 'a-h' (they must be lower case letters - Uppercase is used for the pieces) and that the ranks are numbered from 1-8.

We can give the co-ordinates of any square on the board by stating its file and rank (letter then number).

Therefore 'h1' would be the corner white square at the bottom right of the chessboard.

Now you know how to code the board postions look at the next stage: codes for pieces and moves.

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