=

When a pawn reaches the last row at the opposite edge of the board, it must immediately become a queen, rook, bishop, or knight. Portable Game Notation (PGN), the plain-text format for exchanging games, uses the standard form of algebraic notation, called Standard Algebraic Notation (SAN). In this form, = appears after the destination square and before the new piece letter: e8=Q means promotion to a queen.

Promotion to a knight

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e8=N

e8 is empty and is the square where the pawn must promote.

Pawn on the seventh rank

The white pawn is on e7 and can advance to the last rank. The e8 square is empty.

1. e8 is empty and is the square where the pawn must promote.

If the pawn captures while promoting, the symbols combine in order: exd8=N means that the pawn from the e-file captures on d8 and becomes a knight. If the move also gives check, + follows at the end. Standard PGN uses Q for queen, R for rook, B for bishop, and N for knight.

The convention is not identical in every setting. On a tournament scoresheet governed by the International Chess Federation (FIDE), promotions are written as e8Q without an equal sign, while PGN requires =. The equal sign is therefore part of SAN and standard PGN notation, but not of every notation system.