Free The Everything Chess Basics Book by Peter Kurzdorfer

Q-K3 15. BxRch NxB 16. Q-N8ch NxQ 17. R-Q8 checkmate.
    Other Notations
    There are other notation systems you may come across from time to time. Spanish descriptive, Russian descriptive, or German descriptive are all very similar to English descriptive except that the piece symbols will correspond to the names of the pieces in those languages.
    There is a special international correspondence notation system that is the simplest of all: Each square is assigned two numbers (both ranks and files are numbered) and moves are described as the square a piece or pawn has vacated and the square it moves to.
    Forsyth Notation
    There are notation systems for describing a chess position without bothering with the moves that led up to it. One such is Forsyth notation, in which each White piece or pawn is given as a capital letter and each Black piece or pawn as a lowercase letter. Empty squares are indicated by a number according to how many empty squares there are.

    Chess notation, like music notation or mathematics notation, is quite specialized. It also has become standardized and even automatic with the rise of software, chess-playing computers, and the Internet. Thus you can read and write a universal language when you know chess notation.
    Forsyth positions are set up like a diagram, with the White pieces at the bottom and the Black pieces at the top. Each row consists of a rank, starting with the eighth rank and continuing down to the first rank.
    The final checkmate in the game we have been discussing looks like this in Forsyth notation:
    1n1Rkb1r
p4ppp
4q3
4p1B1
4P3
8
PPP2PPP
2K5
    Another Position Notation
    Of course, it’s just as easy to simply describe the pieces that are on the board and the squares they are on. Again, using the same checkmate position:
    Black: Ke8, Qe6, Rh8, Bf8, Nb8, Pa7, e5, f7, g7, h7
    White: Kc1, Rd8, Bg5, Pa2, b2, c2, e4, f2, g2, h2

    There is one other type of chess notation: Braille. Yes, blind people can and do play chess. They don’t play “blindfold,” however, like a master at an exhibition. Instead, they use special boards and pieces that they are allowed to touch at all times, since their fingers are their eyes. They record and read chess games in Braille notation.
    Diagrams
    These notation systems for positions are all right as far as they go. But they won’t be much help unless you have a chessboard and set to display the position. That is, unless you can easily visualize the position from the description. Not many people can do that readily.
    So printed diagrams have come into use. These diagrams are simply a small picture of a chessboard with the pieces and pawns shown on their correct squares. You have already been making use of diagrams throughout this book, and will continue doing so.
    Making diagrams was simply a matter of squishing a three-dimensional board with pieces and pawns into two dimensions. It was accomplished by picturing the board flat as seen from above and picturing the pieces as two-dimensional symbols of the actual pieces.
    Representing a Game
    Diagrams can be used in place of chess notation. The only problem is that they take up a lot of room, so printing costs and book or magazine weight and size are prohibitive. Here is the game we have been looking at so far in various notations, with a representation of each move shown with a new diagram:

    Position after 1. e4.

    Position after 1. ... e5.

    Position after 2. Nf3.

    Position after 2. ... d6.

    Position after 3. d4.

    Position after 3. ... Bg4.

    Position after 4. dxe5.

    Position after 4. ... Bxf3.

    Position after 5. Qxf3.

    Position after 5. ... dxe5.

    Position after 6. Bc4.

    Position after 6. ... Nf6.

    Position after 7. Qb3.

    Position after 7. ... Qe7.

    Position after 8. Nc3.

    Position after 8. ... c6.

    Position after 9. Bg5.

    Position after 9. ... b5.

    Position after 10. Nxb5.

    Position after 10. ... cxb5.

    Position after 11. Bxb5+.

    Position after 11. ... Nbd7.

    Position after 12.