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Betza Notation. A primer on the leading shorthand for describing variant piece moves.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Peter Aronson wrote on Tue, Apr 22, 2003 04:24 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

This is probably pointless, and almost certainly frivolous, but I have been thinking about syntax to partially describe promotion lately, and have a proposal. <hr> A pieces that promotes is indicated by an = sign at the end of its movement description, optionally followed by a piece description (what it promotes to), a set of piece descriptions enclosed in ( ) and separated by commas or spaces, or a one of *, + or -. <blockquote> * indicates promotion to any type of nonroyal, nonpawn piece that started play on either side of the board. + indicates promotion to any type of nonroyal, nonpawn piece that started play on the owner's side of the board. - indicates promotion to any previously captured nonpawn piece. </blockquote> A = at the end of a piece without anything else simply states that the piece promotes in some (most likely obscure) manner. If a piece can promote in different ways at different times, multiple promotion strings separated by multiple ='s are possible. This scheme does not specify how or where promotion occurs. <h4>Examples</h4> <li>FIDE Pawn: fnWfcF=* -or- fnWfcF=(N,B,R,RB) <li>Makruk Pawn: fnWfcF=F <li>Gothic Isles Chess Pawn: fnWfcF=FfW=- <li>Rococo Cannon Pawn: gWFnWF=- <li>Shogi Rook: R=FR </ul> <hr> So there it is. Hardly complete, but that's funny notation for you.