Sunday, July 22, 2012

Another off topic post about chess


At chess.com I wrote the following post at http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/am-i-the-only-chessplayer-in-the-world-who-loves-descriptive-notation:

I noticed the greatest chess player in world history, Bobby Fischer, used descriptive notation. I still prefer it because descriptive notation is more like the English language than algebraic notation.
From wikipedia: "Algebraic notation is more concise and requires less effort to avoid ambiguity".
For me that's an advantage for descriptive notation because it forces me to consider using a different piece to make a move, for example to use the queen knight instead of the king knight to capture something.
When the computer does all the work there's no problem, but when I have to write down the moves it's easier for me to write 1. N-KB3 N-KB3 instead of 1. Nf3 Nf6. It's easier for me to remember the knight is going to the king bishop file instead of the f file. And it confuses me to have to remember that Black's 3rd rank is rank 6 in algebraic notation.
I also noticed that when reading a chess book it's easier to study a game without using a chess board when the notation is descriptive.
Am I the only one who is still prefers descriptive notation?

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descriptive_notation

By identifying each square with reference to the player on move, descriptive notation better reflects the symmetry of the game's starting position ("both players opened with P-K4 and planned to play B-KN2 as soon as possible"), and because the pieces captured are named, it is easy to skim over a game record and see which ones have been taken at any particular point.


The maxim that "a pawn on the seventh is worth two on the fifth" makes sense from both Black's perspective as well as White's perspective.
English descriptive notation is also particular to chess, not to any other game.
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A comment at another chess notation thread at chess.com:

Descriptive notation:
"But soft, what light through yonder file breaks
It is on the back rank, and it is a queen
Arise, fair knight, and kill the envious rook
Who is already pale and sick with grief"
Algebraic notation:
22. Qe8 Nxd8

This blog has 70 off topic posts at anything else I want to write about including 6 posts about chess at chess.

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