Home Row Notation

Home Row Notation (HRN)

KBchess introduces Home Row Notation (HRN), a notation system whose purpose is'nt to record or describe moves but rather to help online chess players playing with a desktop or laptop, make moves using a keyboard instead of a mouse.

HRN leverages several things inorder to work.

  • Touch typing - the ability to type without looking at the keyboard, relying instead on muscle memory. Familiarity with touch typing is essential to fully realize the advantages of HRN over mouse-based play. If you're new to touch typing, we recommend TypingClub for beginner lessons and Keybr or MonkeyType for practicing.
  • Home Row Keys - the eight keys in the dead-center of a standard QWERTY keyboard where your fingers naturally rest. A, S, D and F for your left hand, and J, K, L and ; (semicolon) for your right hand. Your thumbs rest on the Space bar. These are the fastest, most accurate keys you can press because they sit directly beneath your fingertips.
  • Chess coordinates - these are unique addresses used to identify every square on the chessboard. They are formed by combining a file (column) labeled a through h with a rank (row) numbered 1 through 8. For example, e4 refers to the square on the e-file and the 4th rank. Chess coordinates form the basis of Algebraic notation and are used to record and describe moves.

HRN replaces the traditional file labels (a–h) and rank labels (1–8) with the 8 home row letters A, S, D, F, J, K, L, ;(semicolon). As a result, every square is identified using only home row keys. a1 becomes AA and h8 becomes ;;.

This greatly eases the effort required to type notations. For example playing Nc3 would require moving your right and left index fingers from the home row to press N and c respectively, then stretch your middle finger even further inorder to press 3. In HRN, Nc3 is SADD, while having an extra character, it's faster, easier and more accurate to type since your fingers do not have to leave the home row.

Please Note! Unlike Algebraic notation, HRN coordinates are locked to the board as it appears on your screen and do not flip when you change sides. For instance, the bottom-left corner square is always AA, whether you are playing White or Black (compared to Algebraic, where it toggles between a1 and h8). This consistency is designed to help you build fast, intuitive muscle memory for every square.

With time, players will naturally develop muscle memory and intuitively type a square's HRN coordinate without looking at it's HRN label, much like touch typists no longer think about individual key locations. To help with this transition, KBchess provides visual aid by:

  • Labelling each square with its HRN coordinate in the top-left corner, making the board easy to learn and reference.
  • Giving you real-time visual feedback to prevent typos. Pressing the first letter instantly highlights the first letters of the target column's HRN labels, and typing the second letter highlights the exact square's HRN label. This makes it incredibly easy to catch a typos.