Shorthand & Old Notation

Shorthand Notation
When recording a game, particularly a high-level tournament game, it is common for annotations to be added to certain moves to describe their power or novelty. This is widely used, but what counts as an "excellent" move or a "dubious" move is certainly more a subject art than an objective science. It is useful to understand these when reading chess notation to get insight into the writer's opinion about any given move.

'!' the move is considered a strong or good move: e7!

'!!' the move is considered an excellent or exceptional move: Qc5!!

'?' the move is considered a mistake or weak move: Ng4?

'??' the move is considered a blunder or losing move: Kf2??

'!?' the move is considered interesting, but probably not best: Bb8!?

'?!' the move is considered dubious, but probably sound: Ra5?!

"Old" Descriptive Notation

If you open enough chess books published before 1981, you will have seen the predecessor to algebraic notation (like in the moves listed above): Descriptive Notation. Algebraic notation is far superior, but it can be useful to have the basics of descriptive notation under your belt so you can make use of older chess materials.

Here are the takeaways: 

1. Each square has two names depending on which side is moving.
   
2. The first part of the name uses either K or Q to represent kingside or queenside, and then R, B, and N (or Kt) to represent the Rook, Bishop, or kNight files.
   
3. The last part of the name is a number to represent the rank, beginning with 1 for the rank that the pieces (not pawns) start on. So white's 1s are black's 8s, and vise-versa.
   
4. The same piece abbreviations, plus P for Pawn, are added to the front of the square name with a dash to indicate which piece moved. The dash is replaced by an 'x' if it is a capturing move.
   
5. Castling is written the same as algebraic notation (or rather, algebraic took it from descriptive): 0-0 for kingside, 0-0-0 for queenside.
   
6. Pawn promotion is indicated with (), /, or =. 
   
7. Lastly, moves that are not ambiguous on the board are often written with minimal information, even if removing that notation from context would make it impossible to tell which move occurred. An example of that can be found below.

The following is a game I played that ended in a pretty quick checkmate. I played black. My online opponent, I found out later, was 7 years old. Luckily, the game had a good number of mirrored moves and captures that make it a good example for descriptive notation's unique assumptions. I will list all the moves in algebraic notation, then descriptive notation, and then write the move in plain english.

1. e4 e6
   P-K4 P-K3
   White advances king pawn two squares, black advances king pawn one square (French Defense). (Notice, the ranks are counted from the player's back rank, not an absolute rank.)
   
   
2. Nf3 d5
   N-KB3 P-Q4
   White moves kingside knight to third rank of king bishop file, black advances queen pawn two squares. (Notice, it has to be the kingside night, so no disambiguation is provided.)
   
   
3. exd5 exd5
   PxP PxP
   White captures the black queen pawn with the king pawn, black recaptures with the king pawn. (Notice, there is no disambiguation as to which pawns capture which, since only one is possible.)
   
   
4. Bd3 Bd6
   B-Q3 B-Q3
   White moves kingside bishop to third rank of queen file, black does the same.
   
   
5. 0-0 Bg4
   0-0 B-KN5
   White castles kingside, black moves queenside bishop to fifth rank of king night file.
   
   
6. h3 Bh5
   P-KR2 B-KR4
   White advances pawn on king rook file one square, black retreats bishop to the fourth rank of king rook file. 
   
   
7. g4 Bg6
   P-KN4 B-KN3
   White advances pawn on king knight file two squares, black retreats bishop to third rank of king knight file.
   
   
8. Bxg6 hxg6
   BxB KRPxB
   White bishop captures bishop, back captures back with the pawn on the king rook file. (Notice, disambiguation is required here to determine which pawn captures.)
   
   
9. Nc3 Rxh3
   N-QB3 RxP
   White moves queenside knight to third rank of queen bishop file, black captures pawn with rook.
   
   
10. Qe2+ Ne7
    Q-K2 N-K2
    White moves queen to second rank of king file, black moves knight to second rank of king file. (Again, there is no disambiguation for which knight because only one can reach this square.)
    
    
11. d3 Nc6
    P-Q3 QN-QB3
    White advances queen pawn one square, black moves queenside knight to third rank of queen bishop file. (Black's moves requires disambiguation, because both knights can reach the square.)
    
    
12. Ng5 Nd4
    N-KN5 N-Q5
    White moves knight to fifth rank of king knight file, black moves knight to fifth rank of queen file.
    
    
13. Qd2 Qd7
    Q-Q2 Q-Q2
    White moves queen to second rank of queen file, black does the same.
    
    
14. Nxh3 Qxg4+
    NxR QxP ch
    White captures rook with knight, black captures pawn with queen and gives check. (Again, no disambiguations because both moves can only occur in one way.)
    
    
15. Kh1 Qxh3+
    K-KR1 QxN ch
    White moves king to first rank of king rook file, black captures knight with queen and gives check.
    
    
16. Kg1 Nf3#
    K-KN1 N-KB6 mate
    White moves king to first rank of king knight file, black moves knight to sixth rank of king bishop file and gives mate.