Chess Notation Converter
Chess notation converter. Convert moves between Algebraic (SAN), Long Algebraic, Coordinate (UCI), ICCF Numeric, and English Descriptive notation.
Chess Notation Converter
How to use
Paste your moves
Drop in any SAN move list (1. e4 e5), full PGN with headers, or even bare UCI tokens (e2e4 e7e5). Move numbers, comments, and variations are tolerated.
(Optional) starting FEN
For puzzles or endgame studies, paste the starting position. Leave blank for the standard opening setup.
Hit Convert
Each move appears side-by-side in 5 notations: Algebraic (SAN), Long Algebraic, UCI, ICCF Numeric, English Descriptive.
Copy what you need
Hand-copy individual cells, or screenshot the table for a quick comparison side-by-side.
5 Chess Notation Systems Side-by-Side
Chess has accumulated five distinct notation systems over its history, each suited to different purposes — from publishing old chess books to feeding moves into modern engines. This tool converts between them all so you can read any chess source.
Algebraic (SAN) — the modern standard
SAN (Standard Algebraic Notation) has been FIDE's official system since 1981. Files are a-h, ranks are 1-8. Examples: e4 (pawn to e4), Nf3 (knight to f3), O-O (kingside castle), Bxe5+ (bishop captures, check). Used in all modern chess books, magazines, and PGN files.
Long Algebraic — disambiguated SAN
Includes the starting square: e2-e4, Ng1-f3. More verbose but unambiguous when re-reading old game scores by hand. Used in German chess books (lange Notation) and tournament arbiter scoresheets.
UCI Coordinate — engine input
The Universal Chess Interface format used by Stockfish, Komodo, and all modern engines: e2e4, g1f3, promotions as e7e8q. No piece letters, no special move tokens — just from-square + to-square. The lingua franca of chess engines since 2000.
"FIDE adopted Algebraic Notation as the sole official system in 1981 — replacing the previously dominant English Descriptive notation that had ruled chess publishing for over 200 years."
ICCF Numeric — language-independent
International Correspondence Chess Federation uses pure numbers: files become 1-8, ranks become 1-8. So e2-e4 = 5254, g1-f3 = 7163. Designed for postal-mail chess across language barriers — Russian, Chinese, Arabic, English players all read the same digits. Still used in some correspondence tournaments today.
English Descriptive — the historical system
Pre-1980s English-language chess books used: P-K4 ("Pawn to King 4"), N-KB3 ("Knight to King's Bishop 3"), PxP ("Pawn takes Pawn"). Files were named relative to the original king/queen position (KR, KN, KB, K, Q, QB, QN, QR). Ranks counted from each side's back rank — so e4 is "K4" for White but "K5" for Black. Essential for reading any pre-1980 chess book: Reinfeld, Chernev, Capablanca's writings, etc.
Who needs this tool?
Chess writers (publishing across formats), correspondence players (ICCF tournaments), chess historians (reading Capablanca, Lasker, Alekhine in original), engine developers (debugging UCI traffic), chess teachers in SG/MY/ID/PH using mixed English/non-English study material.
10 Facts about Chess Notation
SAN became FIDE-standard in 1981. Before that, English-speaking countries used Descriptive (P-K4); Russia and Germany used Algebraic; some used both. The 1981 FIDE Congress unified everyone on SAN.
"Algebraic" was invented in 1737 by Philipp Stamma in his book Essai sur le Jeu d'Eschecs (Paris). Took 244 years to become the global standard.
UCI was introduced in November 2000 by Stefan-Meyer Kahlen (author of Shredder). Replaced the older proprietary WinBoard/XBoard protocol.
The 50-move rule requires a pawn move or capture every 50 moves. PGN files often include {50-move counter: 49} comments — but only the engines actually track it.
Capablanca's 1922 book Chess Fundamentals used English Descriptive throughout (P-K4, N-KB3). Now sometimes reissued in modern algebraic — but historians prefer the original.
ICCF Numeric notation: 5254 = e2-e4. The first digit is the file (1=a, 8=h), the second is the rank. Captures and special moves use the same 4 digits — no symbols.
The shortest possible chess game in legal notation is 1. f3 e5 2. g4 Qh4# — Fool's Mate in 4 plies. Most common at beginners-only blitz.
PGN (Portable Game Notation) was created in 1994 by Steven J. Edwards as a text-based interchange format. Now used by every chess website, engine, and database.
FEN (Forsyth-Edwards Notation) is Edwards' parallel format for single positions. Born of the same 1994 effort. Used in puzzles, problem composition, and engine debugging.
Korean and Chinese chess publications sometimes use ICCF-style notation to skip translating piece names — particularly helpful for Asia-Europe correspondence games.
Frequently Asked Questions
SAN omits the starting square unless ambiguity requires it:
Nf3. Long Algebraic always includes it:Ng1-f3. Both describe the same move — SAN is shorter for publishing, Long for hand-scoring.Engines work with squares, not piece types. The position already tells them what's on g1 — so
g1f3unambiguously means "move whatever's on g1 to f3". This makes UCI parsing trivial and universal across languages.SAN:
e8=Qore8Q. Long:e7-e8=Q. UCI:e7e8q(lowercase piece letter). ICCF: append a digit — 1=Q, 2=R, 3=B, 4=N →57581for "e7-e8 promote to queen".Thousands of pre-1980 chess books and magazines were written in it: Reinfeld, Chernev, Soltis, Capablanca, Lasker, all early American chess literature. To read any classic, you need to understand it.
Yes — the parser strips PGN headers (anything in
[...]), move numbers (1.,2...), comments ({...}), variations ((...)), and result markers (1-0,0-1,1/2-1/2,*). Just paste the whole file.Put the starting FEN in the optional FEN field. The tool plays moves from that position instead of standard chess. Useful for Chess960 (Fischer Random) games and endgame studies.
If two pieces of the same type can reach the same square, SAN requires disambiguation:
Nbd2(knight from the b-file) orR1e2(rook from the 1st rank). The tool follows standard SAN disambiguation rules.Partially — you can paste any starting FEN, and the engine handles unusual castling positions if they appear. Full Chess960 SAN castling rules (O-O, O-O-O regardless of king position) are a chess.js v1+ feature.
Yes — paste just
e4or just1. e4. The tool handles any number of moves from 1 to a full game (with the starting position context, of course).Each call handles one game. To convert dozens at once, write a small script that calls chess.js directly (it's the same library this tool uses, BSD-2 licensed, free for commercial use).
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