Editing Algebraic notation (chess) (section)

==History==
Descriptive notation was usual in the Middle Ages in Europe. A form of algebraic chess notation that seems to have been borrowed from Muslim chess, however, appeared in Europe in a 12th-century manuscript referred to as "MS. Paris Fr. 1173 (PP.)". The files run from ''a'' to ''h'', just as they do in the current standard algebraic notation. The ranks, however, are also designated by letters, with the exception of the 8th&nbsp;rank which is distinct because it has no letter. The ranks are lettered in reverse – from the 7th to the 1st: ''k'', ''l'', ''m'', ''n'', ''o'', ''p'', ''q''.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Murray |first=Harold James Ruthven |url=https://www.archive.org/details/AHistoryOfChessHJRMurray |title=A History of Chess |date=1913 |publisher=Clarendon Press |place=Oxford, UK |pages=469–470}}</ref>

Another system of notation using only letters appears in a book of Mediaeval chess, Rechenmeister [[Jacob Köbel]]'s ''Schachzabel Spiel'' of 1520.<ref name=":0" />

Algebraic notation exists in various forms and languages and is based on a system developed by [[Philipp Stamma]] in the 1730s. Stamma used the modern names of the squares (and may have been the first to number the ranks), but he used ''p'' for pawn moves and the capital original {{chessgloss|file}} of a piece (''A'' through ''H'') instead of the initial letter of the piece name as used now.<ref>{{cite book | title=A Short History of Chess | publisher=David McKay | author=Davidson, Henry | year=1981 | pages=152–153 | isbn=978-0679145509 }}</ref> Piece letters were introduced in the 1780s by [[Moses Hirschel]], and [[Johann Allgaier]] with [[Aaron Alexandre]] developed the modern castling notation in the 1810s.<ref>{{cite web |last=Wall |first=Bill |title=Chess Notation |url=https://billwall.phpwebhosting.com/articles/chess_notation.htm}}</ref>

Algebraic notation was described in 1847 by [[Howard Staunton]] in his book ''The Chess-Player's Handbook''. Staunton credits the idea to German authors, and in particular to "Alexandre, [[Carl Jaenisch|Jaenisch]] and the ''[[Handbuch des Schachspiels|Handbuch]]'' {{grey|[''des Schachspiels'']}}".<ref>{{cite book |last=Staunton |first=Howard |title=The Chess-Player's Handbook |quote=A popular and scientific introduction to the game of chess, exemplified in games actually played by the greatest masters, and illustrated by numerous diagrams of original and remarkable positions. |edition=Second, revised |year=1866 |publisher=Bell & Daldy |location=London, UK |pages=501 |lang=en-GB |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tchh5AGWYj4C&q=Staunton+%22Chess-Player%27s+Handbook%22 |via=Google Books}}</ref> While algebraic notation has been used in German and Russian chess literature since the 19th century, the [[Anglosphere]] was slow to adopt it, using descriptive notation for much of the 20th century. Beginning in the 1970s, algebraic notation gradually became more common in English language publications, and by 1980 it had become the prevalent notation. In 1981, FIDE stopped recognizing descriptive notation, and algebraic notation became the accepted international standard.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="230px">
File:Ms. Paris 1173.png|Chess diagram found in a French manuscript (1173) 
File:Jacob Köbel 1520.png|Chess diagram from [[Jacob Köbel]]'s German book about Mediaeval chess, ''Schachzabel Spiel'' (1520)
File:Chess diagram from Howard Staunton's "The Chess-Player's Handbook" (1947).png|Chess diagram showing algebraic notation in Howard Staunton's ''The Chess-Player's Handbook'' (1866)
</gallery>