Algebraic notation or an is a method for recording and describing the moves in a game of chess it is based on a system of coordinates to uniquely identify each square on the chessboard it is now standard among all chess organizations and most books magazines and newspapers.
Chess board layout letters numbers.
In the first diagram below the e4 square is a light colored square intersecting the 4th rank.
One kind of notation however is universally understood.
This notation system replaced the older english descriptive notation which used an abbreviated.
These boards will also have numbers going up and down the sides of the board to identify the rows that go from top to bottom called the files.
Algebraic which uses a single letter and number to name each square and a letter for each chess piece.
Some chess boards have letters across the top and bottom denoting the ranks which are the rows that go from side to side across the chessboard.
In english speaking countries the parallel method of descriptive notation was generally used in chess publications.
Many kinds of chess notation exist from forsythe a notation that computers understand to different notations for various languages.
The board also has diagonals from h1 to a8 for example.