ICCF notation

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The International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) uses a concise, unambiguous format for recording moves, using only the numbers 1 to 8.


  1. The first character in a move in ICCF format is the file (column) of the moving piece's starting location. 1 is the leftmost file, and 8 is the rightmost file.
  2. The second character is the rank (row) of the moving piece's starting location. 1 is the bottom rank, and 8 is the top rank.
  3. The third character is the file (column) of the moving piece's destination square. 1 is the leftmost file, and 8 is the rightmost file.
  4. The fourth character is the rank (row) of the moving piece's destination square. 1 is the bottom rank, and 8 is the top rank.
  5. There is an optional fifth character to denote a pawn promotion. A 1 denotes a queen promotion, a 2 denotes a rook promotion, a 3 denotes a bishop promotion, and a 4 denotes a knight promotion.


Castling is indicated as an ordinary move by the king. The rest of the castling process (the rook's movement) is not explicitly indicated.


A move of 2133 would mean that the piece in the indicated square (a knight in this case) moves one file to the right and two ranks forward. A move of 5171 would mean that the piece in the indicated square moves two files to the right - if that piece is a king, this would therefore indicate a kingside castle. A move of 77882 would mean that the piece in the indicated square (a pawn in this case) moves one file to the right and one rank forwards, and the final character indicates the pawn's promotion to rook.