Pick a chess book and go through some pages. Soon you will discover some numbers and letters – like a4, h7, e6 – are used frequently to explain a game or position. What does those numbers and letters even mean in chess? It was not until I discovered online chess that I learned that there is a unique name for each 64 squares in the board. I was amazed that even the naming of the squares exists as well. With having the knowledge of the square names and chess notations you can flex your skills in front of your friends like a nerd! Let’s start learning the board itself.

The Board

Chessboard is an 8×8 grid that contains 64 squares with alteration of a light color and a dark color with corresponding-colored pieces – generally white and black.

The Files

When you orient the board in the correct manner – which is to put the light-colored square of the lower-most row on the right from each player’s side – the vertical lines of rows are called the file. There are 8 files in a chessboard. The files’ names range from a through h.

The green highlights are the a file, reds are e file, and the blues are h file – as you can notice that the name of each file is in the bottom of the respective files. You have learned half of naming a square on a chessboard.

The Ranks

You might have seen in the previous pictures that on the right-hand side of each picture, there are some numbers written. This is the part of the other half of naming a square.

The horizontal rows of lines of squares are called the ranks. As like files, there exist a total number of 8 ranks in a chessboard. And the ranks name ranges from 1 to 8.

Here in the picture, 4^th rank is highlighted green, and the red one is the 6^th rank.

Naming of the Squares

We are now familiar with both the files and ranks of a chessboard. Let’s put it altogether and name all of the squares.

Pick any square in the board. Let’s choose this one in the picture below.

Can you find the file the square is on? It’s the file e. Now, the final step is to figure out the rank of the square for naming. In this case, it’s one the 4th rank. So, this particular square’s name is e4.

Similarly, the left corner square of the lower-most rank is a1. If you go along the first rank from a1, you will find b1, c1, d1 all the way to h1. When the board is set up correctly, the player with the white pieces will have a1 on their first rank. On the other hand, player with black pieces will have a8 in that same position.

In summary, in order to identify a square, all you need to do is –

Step 1: Find the file of the square (for instance, g)

Step 2: Find the rank of that very square. (for instance, 6)

Step 3: Say the square’s name loudly (g6!)

Here’s a quick look at all the squares and their names.

You have completed one of the first steps to learn chess. Now you can easily write your moves and maybe try some blindfold chess as well. See you.