Author: José de Jesús García Ruvalcaba
Date: 08:05:45 04/05/99
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On April 03, 1999 at 03:31:21, allan johnson wrote: >Jose Could you please explain what FEN is and how I access and use it. >Thanks Allan FEN stands for Forsythe-Edwards notation, and is used to describe chess positions. Forsythe was a correspondence player of the nienteen century, and to him is due how we do describe where the pieces are in the board. First, the name of the pieces are abbreviated with the initial letter. White pieces in uppercase, black ones in lowercase. Now think you have a position on the chessboard. It is described row by row, beggining with the eigth row, following with the seventh row and so on until the first row. The rows are described from left to right (from white's perspective). In a row we have some pieces and some empty squares. We may have more than one consecutive empty squares. Those consecutive empty squares are simbolized by a single number (1 means one empty square, 2 means to consecutive empty squares, and so on). That way you put the row information, initials of pieces and empty squares. Rows are separated by diagonals. For example, the initial position in Forsythe notation is: rnbqkbkr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR Forsythe notation is used since long ago to write down the adjourned positions on the adjournment envelope. I have had lots of adjournments, so I needed to know this. But also in the envelope it is written whose turn it is. This and more information was added to the notation by Edwards. After the position string, there follows a blank space and then whose turn it is. w meand white and b means black. Then there follows the castling rigths. K means white can castle kingside, Q that white can castle queenside, k meand that black can castle kingside and q means that black can castle queenside. If no player keeps the right to castle, a - is required. Then there follows the en-passant rights. If the previous move was a pawn advancing two squares, the the square it jumped over is to be written (even if the pawn can not be captured en-passant). If the previous move is not a pawn advancing two squares (or if there is no previous move), a - is written. Then there follows the number of plies that have been made without moving a pawn or capturing a piece (relevant to the 50-move rule). And then the number of the move that is next. With all this the initial position is: rnbqkbkr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1 Hope it helps, if you need some clarification or more examples feel free to ask. José.
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