In addition to writing down an entire game move by move, there is also
a standard method of printing a particular board configuration (fortunately,
only one).
The rules are simple:
- White is at the bottom of the board, Black at the top
- Each type of piece is denoted by a single letter (P=pawn, N=knight,
B=bishop, R=rook, Q=queen, K=king). Although speakers of other
languages have different initials for the piece names (and despite
the worldwide governing organization (FIDE) being French),
I believe that "official" diagrams use the English letters.
- White's pieces are denoted by upper-case letters, Black's by lower-case
Thus, the original setup of the board is:
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| r | n | b | q | k | b | n | r |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| R | N | B | Q | K | B | N | R |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+