fen

Originally posted by TheDarkKnight
thx:-), but actually i wanted to post a position i made up, not one from a game, so i need to be able to write the fen and not just download it. sorry for the misunderstanding.

It's like reading a book: left to right, top to bottom. Lower case for black, upper for white. Numbers represent empty squares, slashes the end of a row

Hence pPpPpPpP/NnNnNnNn/bBbBbBbB/RrRrRrRr/8/8/Q6q/K1k5

yields

Originally posted by TheDarkKnight
thx:-), but actually i wanted to post a position i made up, not one from a game, so i need to be able to write the fen and not just download it. sorry for the misunderstanding.

When writing a fen, you place the board in front of you viewed from White's Side.
There will be 8 positions divided by '/' marks. These are the Ranks of the board 8 through 1 and from a to h.

Black's pieces are lower case letters, and White uses ALLCATS (capital letters) You count blank spaces also and use a number to show how many are in a row.

Here is how you do it from the position I show here:

r1bqkbnr/pppp1ppp/2n5/1B2p3/4P3/5N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQK2R b KQkq

Translation of the first section, they are all Black pieces
Rook
Empty Square
Bishop
Queen
King
Bishop
Night
Rook

That is how you set up the back rank, and would next continue to set up the 7th rank.

Notice the 8 separated 'sections' will all add up to 8 since every rank has 8 squares. The third one, 2n5/ means (left to right) 2 blanks, Black Knight, 5 blanks. That adds up to 8. If there were no pieces on a rank, you would see this '8/'

After that is done, the 'b' says it is black's turn. w would be for white.
KQkq means White and Black can both castle King or Queen Side. If you see a Q alone, that means White can Castle Queenside only, and no other castle moves can be made. This is to keep track, incase a king moved and went back to the start, or perhaps a Rook moved and went back. You can't castle from this position shown, but both sides can castle either way in the future.

P-

Originally posted by TheDarkKnight
hmm, didnt show black to move. oh well.

You need to say 'black to move'. Users here in the forums can actually click 'reply and quote' and get the full text... but saying who's move will need to do for now.

Perhaps Russ could edit somehow and add a 'Who's move' near the bottom... that would be interesting.

If you write it right, you should be able to paste your info to a program like Winboard and it will know who's move it is.

P-

I test pasted your fen and it says Black's move. You did it right.