This new notation system is intended to be very close to the standard Japanese notation, without requiring notators to be able to write Japanese characters.
Each move consists of up to five parts, optional parts written in parentheses:
- (Move number or side)
- Destination
- Piece
- (Disambiguation)
- (Promotion)
Move number or side
A move may be preceded by a move number (with a period and space after), or a player symbol (☗/▲ Black, ☖/△ White). Doing both is not necessary, since Black always makes odd moves and White even moves. (Each individual move is numbered, unlike chess notation.)
Destination
Squares are named with two Arabic numerals, file followed by rank, White's left corner being 11, and Black's left corner 99.
If a piece captures the piece that just moved, its destination square is replaced with the ditto mark: 〃.
Piece
Piece abbreviations are written in romanized Japanese, as follows:
| Abbreviation | Alias | Piece name (Japanese) | Piece name (English) | Graphic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gy | gyoku | 玉将 gyokushō | king |  |
| kin | 金将 kinshō | gold general |  |
|
| hi | 飛車 hisha | rook |  |
|
| kk | kaku | 角行 kakugyō | bishop |  |
| gin | 銀将 ginshō | silver general |  |
|
| kei | 桂馬 keima | knight |  |
|
| kyo | 香車 kyōsha | lance |  |
|
| fu | 歩兵 fuhyō | pawn |  |
|
| ryu | 龍王 ryūō | rook-ferz (dragon) |  |
|
| uma | 龍馬 ryūme | bishop-wazir (horse) |  |
|
| +gin | 成銀 narigin | promoted silver |  |
|
| +kei | 成桂 narikei | promoted knight |  |
|
| +kyo | 成香 narikyō | promoted lance |  |
|
| to | +fu | と金 tokin | promoted pawn |  |
Disambiguation
Conventions for disambiguation are as follows:
- If a piece is dropped on a square that a like piece can move to, this is indicated by a square symbol: □, for the square-shaped komadai.
- If another like piece on the board can be moved to the same square, the movement direction (from the moving player's point of view) is indicated by an arrow, ↑ ↗ → ↘ ↓ ↙ ← ↖. The diagonal forward arrows ↖ ↗ also indicate knight moves.
Promotion
Promotion is indicated by +. Deferred promotion is indicated by =.
Notes
Captures are not noted, other than those implied by the 〃 convention. Drops are only noted if ambiguous. Check is not noted. The game's end is noted like so:
| Notation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1-0 | Black wins, through White's resignation if not otherwise noted. |
| 0-1 | White wins, through Black's resignation if not otherwise noted. |
| ½-½ | Sennichite or jishōgi occurred. |
Example
An example to illustrate the notation, and when disambiguation is and isn't used. The top right corner of the board from Black's point of view is seen, as is the yellow row representing his pieces in hand.
| 3 | 2 | 1 | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1 | ||
|
2 | ||
|
|
|
3 |
|
|||
| Standard Japanese | Hosking | Sassersson |
|---|---|---|
| 2二と引 | +P21-22 | 22to↓ |
| 2二と寄 | +P12-22 | 22to← |
| 2二と上 | +P23-22 | 22to↑ |
| 2二銀左成 | S33-22+ | 22gin↗+ |
| 2二銀右不成 | S13-22= | 22gin↖= |
| 2二銀打 | S'22 | 22gin□ |
| 2二歩 | P'22 | 22fu |
This page was last updated 2020-04-30.