Promotion notation

A pawn promotes when it reaches the farthest row of the board from its starting side. It must immediately be replaced by a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. It cannot remain a pawn or become a king.

Portable Game Notation (PGN), a plain-text format for storing games, uses Standard Algebraic Notation (SAN). For a promotion, SAN writes the destination square, an equals sign, and the English letter of the new piece: Q for queen, R for rook, B for bishop, and N for knight. Examples include e8=Q and c1=N.

If the pawn captures, keep the capture form: exd8=Q. If promotion gives check or mate, place + or # at the end. In fxg1=Q+, the pawn from the f-file, the vertical column labeled f, captures on g1, becomes a queen, and gives check.

International Chess Federation (FIDE) scoresheet notation also accepts the new piece immediately after the square without an equals sign, as in d8Q. For PGN files, the form with = is standard.