jas@duke.UUCP (Jon A. Sjogren) (12/15/84)
It has long been predicted that the algrebraic notation system, just as the "metric" system of measurement (a redundancy) would quickly relegate DN to the status of quaint curiousity (respectively, would do to the English system of weights and measures). Neither of these "inevitable" changes have occurred, and DN shows no sign of dying off. As a chess master and mathematician, I should feel equally at home in either system, and certainly read both notations (as well as "figurine algebraic"). Yet my mind decidedly show a greater ease and comfort with good old English notation. Based on my experience in teaching chess to young people (in their late teens let us say) I would say that DN is quite decisively easier for them to learn (I am not speaking of under-14 masters and the like). The board set up with Pawns in front of the various named pieces, which provides an immediate and NATURAL frame of reference for notation. The mail thing at that stage is that the moves be LEARNED, the game PLAYED, and the game be RECORDED in as uncomplicated a manner as possible. This is usually accomplished first with EDN. I can list several somewhat more objective advantages to EDN. When I peruse a game score in a magazine, I always prefer that it be written in English. 1) The opening is simply easier to follow. The move PxP is ineffably move dynamic than cxd (and most everybody gets very lazy sooner or later and says cd [ugh]). If there were two possible Pawn captures, you MUST say PxNP, which tells the browser "aha!"--two possible captures. 2) I can tell very quickly and easily by running my finger along the score exactly what the material standing is at any move!!! --totally impossible in AN. 3) EDN most importantly does not destroy the two important symmetries of the chessboard. Why count moves from the White side in a game where the rules, goals and (99.9%) the strategy are EXACTLY the same for White and Black??!! The other near-symmetry can be understood by a couple of examples. "(Endgame) a RP or BP wins, but a NP only draws." "You can win with an a,c,f, or h pawn, but a b or g pawn only gives a draw (yecch)". "Recapturing with the NP opens up the Knight file for use by the Rooks."(Middle game). (Opening) Why don't they call it the f-pawn gambit, and c-pawn gambit instead of the King's and Queen's Gambit (terms also used by our algebraic friends in Europe). Chess is chess. Algebra is algebra. Does Bobby consistently use algebraic? Remember the photocopy of his game with Spassky at Siegen in the book of his complete games by Wade et al? The scoresheet in his own handwriting was in English Descriptive Notation!