Tool to display / translate a Forsyth-Edwards notation (FEN) of a chess game. The line notation FEN allows to describe any position of a chess game.
Forsyth-Edwards Notation - dCode
Tag(s) : Notation System, Board Games
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Forsyth-Edwards Notation
FEN Reader
Answers to Questions (FAQ)
What is FEN notation? (Definition)
In chess, the FEN notation (for Forsyth-Edwards notation) makes it possible to describe, in a single line, precisely any position of a chessboard (that is to say, the positions of all the pieces, the state of the game, whose this turn, possible rooks, etc.).
How does FEN notation work?
FEN starts by encoding the content of the chessboard by rows from top to bottom (seen from the white side). The characters describing the parts are:
| K | White King | k | Black King |
| Q | White Queen | q | Black Queen |
| R | White Rook | r | Black Rook |
| B | White Bishop | b | Black Bishop |
| N | White Knight | n | Black Knight |
| P | White Pawn | p | Black Pawn |
| 1-8 | 1 to 8 empty boxes |
Example: The starting position of a chess board is: rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR
The chessboard description is completed with 5 informations:
| w or b | Indicates the next player (w = white, b = black) |
| KQkq | Indicates possible castling. K and / or Q for black castle respectively coded King or Queen and likewise k and / or q for the white castle |
| - or coordinate | Coordinates of a possible case of taking en passant |
| 0 to 50 | Number of moves since last catch |
| 1 to 999 | Move number |
What does FEN stand for?
FEN is the acronym for Forsyth-Edwards Notation, named after David Forsyth, a Scottish journalist who invented this notation and Steven Edwards who adapted it to make it unambiguous and compatible with computers.
See also SAN notation
Source code
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Forsyth-Edwards Notation on dCode.fr [online website], retrieved on 2023-09-27,
