Forsyth-Edwards Notation FEN in Chess

Chess notation

Two chess notations are primarily available. They are Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) and Portable Game Notation (PGN). Fen is used to define a status of a chess game and PGN is used to define the entire game from beginning. FEN is explained here. Detailed explanation of pgn is given here.

Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN)

FEN is characterised by a single line of ascii characters. FEN has six fields separated by a space as shown in the Fig. fen infographics.

Download the large size pdf file of this infographics on FEN at the chess FEN chart page.

Fields of FEN

1. Piece placement
2. Active color
3. Castling availability
4. En passant target square
5. Halfmove clock
6. Fullmove number

Piece placement

FEN starts from the h1 square from white players perspective. Each set of blank squares are clubbed to a number which indicates the number of continuous empty squares. For example sixth rank at the initial board setup is defined as /8/ (FEN : rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1) and four empty squares followed by four pawns on second rank is defined as /4PPPP/ (FEN : r1bqkb1r/pp1pppp1/n1p2n1p/8/P1PP4/1P6/4PPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1).

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Piece identification in FEN

Each piece id identified by a letter as given below

• K - King
• Q - Queen
• R - Rook
• N - Knight
• B - Bishop
• P - Pawn

Lower case letters are for black pieces and upper case letters are for white pieces. Each rank is separated by a backward slash /.

Example : r3k2r/ p1pppppp/ n7/ 8/ 8/ 8/ P2PPPpP/ R3K2R w KQkq - 0 5

Active color

Second field indicates who will move next. w is for white player and b is for black player.

Example :

• r1b1k2r/pp3ppp/5b2/K2p1n2/2N5/4nN2/Pp4qP/8 w kq - 8 21 - White to move next

• 1k1r3r/pp4pp/8/2pp1pq1/8/P7/PRP2P1P/1Q3R1K b - - 0 18 - Black to move next

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Castling availability

Third field indicates the availability of castling for white player followed by the availability of castling for black player. A total of sixteen possibilities exist for castling availability

King side castling is identified by the letter K for white and k for black. Queen side castling is identified by Q for white and q for black.

Possibilities of castling availability in FEN

1. KQkq - Both King side and Queen side castling are possible are both white and black players
2. KQk - King side and Queen side castling for white and King side castling for black
3. KQq - King side and Queen side castling for white and Queen side castling for black
4. KQ - Only King side and Queen side castling for white
5. Kkq - King side castling for white and King side and Queen side castling for black
6. Kk - Only King side castling for both white and black
7. Kq - King side castling for white and Queen side castling for black
8. K - Only King side castling for white
9. Qkq - Queen side castling for white and King side and Queen side castling for black
10. Qk - Queen side castling for white and King side castling for black
11. Qq - Only Queen side castling for both white and black
12. Q - Only Queen side castling for white
13. kq - Only King side and Queen side castling for black
14. k - Only King side castling for black
15. q - Only Queen side castling for black
16. - - No castling for both white and black

En passant target square

Fourth field is En passant target square and this field represent the target square in case of a possibility of an en passant capture in the next move. The target square is specified irrespective of availability of opponent piece for the en passant capture to occur. The field is represented by a symbol - if no en passant capture target square is available. For example, for the fen 1r2kr2/pp1p1pp1/2p4p/7P/P1PP4/1P6/5PP1/R3K2R b KQ - 0 20, g6 is the enpassant target square if the last move is the black pawn from g7 to g5. Latest fen is 1r2kr2/pp1p1p2/2p4p/6pP/P1PP4/1P6/5PP1/R3K2R w KQ g6 0 21 .

Halfmove clock

Fifth field represents the half move clock. The number of half moves since the last capture or pawn advance is notified in this field. When a capture occurs or a pawn advances, this field will be reset to zero. This number is also used in the draw of match based on fifty move rule

Fullmove number

Sixth field in fen is full move number. This number is incremented by 1 after every move by the black piece.

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Table of Contents

• Chess notation
• Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN)
  • Fields of FEN
  • Piece placement
  • Piece identification in FEN
  • Active color
  • Castling availability
    • Possibilities of castling availability in FEN
  • En passant target square
  • Halfmove clock
  • Fullmove number