I'd like to start a game of correspondence chess. Would anyone like to join me?
For those who haven't done it, it's pretty basic. One just uses algebraic chess notation to make a move, then one's opponent will respond in kind. I figure we can do that in our seperate posts to this thread, although if many games get going we might want to either split off threads or mention at the beginning to whom we are responding so lurkers can keep the participants straight.
The following is algebraic chess notation 101, so anyone who already knows it can skip the rest of this message. I just want to make sure that anybody who doesn't know how to play has the tools.
Algebraic chess notation involves letter symbols for pieces.
K - King
Q - Queen
B - Bishop
N - Knight
R - Rook
In the case of all of these pieces, their moves are designated by their piece letter first, then the square onto which they have moved (e.g. Nf3).
Pawns are just denoted by the square they move to. For example, if the white pawn's first move is the standard king's pawn opening, then the algebraic notation would be:
1. e4
"e" represents the file (vertical column) and 4 represents the rank (horizontal row).
It looks like this, and it's a bit like playing Battleship—which really dates me
Black's response is given starting with an ellipsis and then the algebraic notation for the move. E.g.
1. ... e5
Captures are designated with an x between the piece and the square on which the capture is being made. For example, a knight capturing a piece on the sixth rank in the b file would be Nxb6.
For pawns, captures are designated by the file that the pawn has come from, and the square on which the capture is being made. For example, if we continue the play from step 1 in the above example to a King's Gambit Accepted, then the second step would look like this:
2. f4
2. ... exf4
The symbol for check is + and ++ for double check, written after the move or capture (e.g. Qh4+ or Qxh4+ or Re8++, and so on). Checkmate is written with a # after the algebraic notation for the move, although some older books use ++ for checkmate.
If there's any potential ambiguity about which one of two potential knights or rooks (the two given bishops cannot cross each other's paths) has moved to a square, then the algebraic notation starts with the piece's identification (say, N), the rank on which the piece
was ("d") and the specific square to which it moved (f5) for a combined Ndf5.
Castling is denoted by 0-0 if it's to the kingside, and 0-0-0 if it's to the queenside for both players.
If you're lucky enough to have your pawn reach your opponent's back rank (1 for white, 8 for black), then it will be promoted. FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) standards give the piece chosen after the move made, like this: e1Q, f8R, etc.
That's about it for algebraic chess notation.
So, anyone wanna play?