| In chess, Forsyth Notation is the primary method of quickly recording the position of every piece on the board. This can be used for interrupting a game and resuming it later, or for study purposes.
Starting at the top left-hand corner (from White's side - square a8), pieces are notated by their first letter (Pawn, Rook, kNight, Bishop, Queen, King), with uppercase representing White pieces and lowercase representing Black. Each row is separated by a forward slash /. Empty squares inbetween pieces are counted, and their total written down. For example, a White pawn, followed by a gap of 3 squares, followed by a Black pawn, would be written as P3p. This notation continues down through each row.
As an example, the starting position of the board (after the initial moves 1. e4, e5 have been made), would be notated as:
rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp//4p3/4P3//PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR
As a further example, the position on the board drawn below would be notated as:
r1b2rk1/ppp1qpp1/2np1n1p/1B2p3/4P2B/2PP1N2/P1PQ1PPP/R4RK1
Although numbers at the end of each row are redundant, they help as a form of error-checking.
r - b - - r k -
p p p - q p p -
- - n p - n - p
- B - - p - - -
- - - - P - - B
- - P P - N - -
P - P Q - P P P
R - - - - R K -
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