How do you write a promotion with check and capture?

All three parts in order: exd8=Q+ — pawn from the e-file captures on d8, promotes to a queen, and gives check.

Which disambiguation comes first, file or rank?

File. Use the rank only when both pieces stand on the same file, and the full departure square only when neither file nor rank is enough.

What should I write when my opponent makes an illegal move?

Nothing for the illegal move. Stop the clock, call the arbiter, and record the legal move that is then played.

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Notation · 7 min read

How to notate the tricky moves: castling, en passant, promotion and ambiguous captures

Ordinary moves are easy. Scoresheets break down on the handful of moves that need an extra piece of information — and those are exactly the moves that decide games, so an unreadable entry costs you the analysis you most wanted.

Here is each awkward case with the correct entry, the common wrong entry, and the reason the rule exists.

Castling

Correct: O-O kingside, O-O-O queenside. One token, letter O, three characters for the long side.
Common errors: writing Kg1 (that is a king move, not castling, and it hides the rook), writing 0-0 with zeros in a PGN file, or writing R-K1 style descriptive notation.
If the castling was also check, add the plus: O-O-O+.
Why it matters: the arbiter reconstructing your position needs to know the rook moved too, and a claim about castling rights depends on it.

En passant

Correct: treat it as a pawn capture to the square your pawn ends on. A white pawn on e5 taking a black pawn that just played d7-d5 is exd6.
Common error: writing exd5 — the square of the captured pawn. Your pawn never goes there, and the reconstruction fails.
Optional: 'e.p.' after the move is legacy style, harmless on paper, unnecessary in PGN.

Promotion and underpromotion

Correct: destination square, then = and the piece: a8=Q, exd8=R+, b1=N.
Common errors: writing a8 alone (which piece appeared?), or writing Qa8 (that would be an existing queen moving).
Underpromotion is written the same way — the whole point is that the sheet shows you chose a knight or rook on purpose.

Two pieces that can reach the same square

Add the departure file first. Only if both candidates share the file do you use the rank, and only in freak positions do you write both.

Knights on b1 and f3, both able to reach d2: Nbd2 or Nfd2.
Rooks on e1 and e4, both able to reach e3: R1e3 or R4e3.
Two pawns can capture the same square: the file is already in the notation — exd5 or cxd5 — so nothing extra is needed.
A pinned candidate does not count: if only one of the two can legally move there, no disambiguation is required. Adding it anyway is never wrong on paper.

Odd situations at the board

Illegal move corrected: the illegal move is not part of the game. Record the legal move actually played; the arbiter notes any time penalty on the sheet.
Draw offer: many sheets mark it with an equals sign in the margin next to the move it was made on; the offer itself is not a move.
Claim of repetition or the 50-move rule: stop the clock, call the arbiter, and leave the intended move written only if the arbiter instructs it — otherwise show the position on the board.
Adjourned or unfinished games and forfeits: write the result exactly as the arbiter gives it (1-0, 0-1, 1/2-1/2), and sign.
A move you cannot read afterwards: reconstruct it from the position on the following move rather than guessing the piece letter — that is the same logic our reader uses when it repairs an unreadable token.

How our reader handles messy sheets

When a scan is ambiguous, the app does not guess blindly. It generates every legal candidate for the token, weighs them against the moves that follow, opening theory and the resulting position, and marks the confidence of each repaired move so you can check the doubtful ones yourself.

Clean notation still wins: the fewer ambiguous tokens on the page, the more of your game comes back exactly as you played it.

Key takeaways

En passant is written to the landing square, not the captured pawn's square.
Promotion always names the new piece with =.
Disambiguate with the departure file, then the rank.
Illegal moves are not recorded; the corrected legal move is.

Frequently asked questions

How do you write a promotion with check and capture?: All three parts in order: exd8=Q+ — pawn from the e-file captures on d8, promotes to a queen, and gives check.
Which disambiguation comes first, file or rank?: File. Use the rank only when both pieces stand on the same file, and the full departure square only when neither file nor rank is enough.
What should I write when my opponent makes an illegal move?: Nothing for the illegal move. Stop the clock, call the arbiter, and record the legal move that is then played.