=

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.

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.