Narrated Chess Moves

A recent presentation at my local Amateur Radio Club meeting brought to mind the issue of precisely communicating chess moves over the radio or phone. Since I am reasonably familiar with chess (Elo rating 1350), I thought I would offer my opinion.

Algebraic chess notation solves the problem of recording and transmitting chess moves in a concise text-based format. This post serves as a reference for communicating this algebraic notation verbally.

• Board ranks and files (rows and columns) should be expressed phonetically. That is, the diagonal squares would be pronounced “alpha one” (a1), “bravo two” (b2), “charlie three” (c3), “delta four” (d4), “echo five” (e5), “foxtrot six” (f6), “golf seven” (g7), “hotel eight” (h8).

• Pieces are pronounced as-is: “rook” (R), “knight” (N), “bishop” (B), “queen” (Q), “king” (K). The “pawn” piece term is omitted in algebraic notation and thus may not be pronounced verbally.

• A capture (x) is pronounced “takes”

• Castling moves are “castle kingside” (O-O) and “castle queenside” (O-O-O)

• Finally, “check” (+) and “checkmate” (#), of course.

Here is an example game in algebraic notation and narrated: