Descriptive Notation
An older system of recording chess moves (e.g. P-K4) largely replaced by algebraic notation.
Descriptive notation names squares from each player's own side of the board rather than with a single shared coordinate grid, so the same square has two different labels depending on whose move is being recorded. It was standard in English-language chess literature for much of the 20th century before algebraic notation became the FIDE standard.
Etymology
The system is called descriptive because its moves literally describe the board in words relative to the pieces standing on each file, rather than using fixed coordinates. It evolved out of full natural-language move descriptions used in early English chess literature: Howard Staunton's The Chess-Player's Handbook of 1847 writes P. to K's 4th, which was later abbreviated to P-K4 and finally to P-K4 with no spacing. Files were named after the piece that begins the game on them (King, Queen, King's Bishop and so on) and ranks were counted from each player's own side, so the same square has two different names depending on who is moving. The system was standard in English-, Spanish- and French-language chess literature until roughly 1980, when algebraic notation displaced it. FIDE has not recognised descriptive notation for the resolution of disputes since 1981.
First documented: 1847 — Howard Staunton, The Chess-Player's Handbook (1847), using the form P. to K's 4th; the fully abbreviated form appears in later 19th- and 20th-century literature
Translations
Translations for this term haven't been added yet.