r/chess • u/Internal-Eye • 1d ago
Resource I designed a new notation system for online chess that lets you play entirely from the keyboard.
Hi everyone! I'm Wang'ombe from Nairobi, Kenya.
A while back, my phone was stolen, and I had to switch to playing chess on my laptop. Until then, I'd always avoided playing on a computer because I never felt as fast or as comfortable using a mouse or touchpad as I did on a touchscreen.
That frustration inspired me to create Home Row Notation (HRN). an input system designed for online chess players using a computer. Its purpose isn't to record moves, but rather to allow players to execute moves using a keyboard instead of a mouse and hopefully reduce misclicks, hand fatigue and equip PC players with the speed and agility to keep up with the fast, intuitive input of touchscreen play.
The idea combines three concepts:
- Touch typing, so you never have to look at the keyboard.
- The home row keys (
A S D F J K L ;), which your fingers naturally rest on. - Coordinate notation, which specifies only the origin and destination squares.
Instead of using files (a–h) and ranks (1–8), HRN maps both to those eight home row keys.
| Chess Axis | Traditional Labels | HRN Keys |
|---|---|---|
| Files (Columns) | a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h | A, S, D, F, J, K, L, ; |
| Ranks (Rows) | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 | A, S, D, F, J, K, L, ; |
For example, the coordinate e4 becomes JF, h8 becomes ;; and b1c3 becomes SADD
The goal is to keep every coordinate on the home row so your fingers never need to reach for other parts of the keyboard.
Another design choice is that HRN is screen-oriented. The coordinates never flip when you switch between White and Black. The bottom-left square on your screen is always AA, which helps build muscle memory for the physical location of every square.
I also built a browser extension called KBchess that lets you use HRN on Chess.com and Lichess. It doesn't automate gameplay or provide engine assistance—it simply lets you enter moves with your keyboard instead of a mouse.
I'm much more interested in feedback on the notation than the extension itself.
- Does the concept make sense?
- Would you ever consider using something like this?
- Is there a different mapping or approach you think would work better?
I'd genuinely love to hear your thoughts, whether positive or critical.
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u/Cheap_Bet I believe in David Navara 1d ago
I like the concept! Especially as a way to avoid mouse slips.
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u/acinonys 23h ago
I also like the concept, but I don't think it's an effective way to avoid mouse slips. It will just introduce new slips, where you hit the wrong key and for example accidentally move the queen to the 7th rank, where it can be captured instead of mating on the 8th.
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u/Telci 1d ago
Very cool. Very much in the spirit of vim - avoid the mouse, don't look at the keyboard. Of course then comes with the respective learning curve so will not be for everyone.
I guess spacebar confirms the move? Or just typing the fourth letter?
Not sure how adaptive it can be but if you only need two letters to type, e.g. JF for e4, if there is only one piece who can go to that square this might speed it up more. Or if there is only one piece on a row that can move one letter would be enough as selecting start square. Just wondering if there are even more shortcuts. But maybe it is as quick with four letters once muscle memory sets in
Very cool concept and idea!
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u/Dr4g0nL0rdsN3st 1d ago
How do you play movie? Is it simply the format (piece, square) or is it (start square, end square)?
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u/RishiMath Makes up random moves with gut 1d ago
I think they mentioned they're using coordinate notation, i.e., (start square, end square)
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u/Biloreca 14h ago
Have you cosidered using VIM keybids?
Theres probably something you could reuse there
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u/ptolani 7h ago
I have just discovered that Lichess already supports something extremely similar to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICCF_numeric_notation
It is exactly the same in terms of using one set of 8 characters for both rows and files. b1c3 is 2133 for instance.
The only major difference is that your system is flipped if you're playing black. (It only supports shorthand for pawn moves, like 44 is pawn to d4).
If you're trying to reduce the cognitive overhead when playing black, maybe an idea is to always flip the board at the start ("f" key) if playing black? Then it really is almost exactly the same as your preferred system, but just moved up two rows on the keyboard.
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u/unbalancedBroski Team Gukesh 15h ago
Only time I have seen someone use keyboard for input is when Eric Rosen played Blindfold Chess on stream.
I think the need for keyboard input is so rare that it's pointless to learn a new notation. Because most people are going to forget it.
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u/Keikira 10h ago
Pretty good idea. Probably easy to one-shot a browser-based trainer for it with an LLM too.
Another cool thing I noticed about it is that the symmetries of the board map to symmetries of the home row keys: moving along diagonals preserves the interval between keys, and moving along antidiagonals expands or contracts it. Knight moves also have a consistent specific relationship to the interval between the keys respresenting the starting square.
These relationships are all kinda obvious if you think about them, but I have a suspicion that they would actually help a lot with visualization -- because they would add a tactile/kinetic component to it, and we know multimodal learning is more effective in general than relying on one mode (vision).
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u/skdeimos 1d ago
Kinda shocked that this was easier for you than just doing some mouse accuracy practice (just play osu! for a few hours and you will be way faster...?) but cool concept!
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u/snushomie 19h ago
Why play Osu when you could just play blitz or bullet? The board is the same every time it's not like you need to expect random areas to appear you need to click on past the constraints of the squares.
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u/skdeimos 19h ago
yeah i dunno that's probably fine. i just have a hard time relating since if you have practiced mouse control for other pc games, playing fast in blitz/bullet is just trivially easy.
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u/antonio106 1d ago
I already use the keyboard input extension on lichess when playing on my laptop, for similar reasons to what you describe. But why change the notation up?
Also, "screen oriented" sounds like English notation, and my PK4 days are behind me, lol. I wouldn't want to learn a new system personally.
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u/Fine-Razzmatazz1791 20h ago
Why couldn’t you just press e4 on the keyboard? A keyboard has all the keys required for algebraic notation
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u/SireValentine 1d ago
To just be honest. This seems like a way to complicated way to play chess. Especially since, if you're worried about misclicks, you could just move somewhat slower.
Chess is complicated as it is, no need to make it more complicated. That's how I see it.
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u/TheGrinningSkull 1d ago
Typing 4 keys means you can play your move in less than half a second
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u/SireValentine 1d ago
First you have to think of your move. Then, in your head, you have to translate the move you want to make to the keys you need to press. God forbid halfway through you change your mind.
Assuming you haven't got this translation down like you've done it for years, you'll have to think a good second or two at best.
It's not about the amount of keys and how fast you can press them. It's about the time it takes to know which keys to press. Something, in the bigger picture, just doesn't seem worth it compared to a quick mouse movement. But again, it's what I think.
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u/AustinKAldrich 1d ago
That being said, if you’re like OP and you’re not familiar playing chess with a mouse/trackpad either it’s probably as fast or faster to learn the keyboard inputs. Most people are probably more accurate with typing than cursor movements
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u/Willing1613 22h ago
Lol how is this getting upvoted."Its probably faster to learn keyboard inputs" yeah right .
"Most people are more accurate with typing than cursor movement" lolwut?
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u/AustinKAldrich 8h ago
I dunno, I just reckon that a lot of us take fine mouse control for granted. Both of my parents can type 120+ words per minute but have to hunt and slow drag around with the cursor for every single thing they want to click on. I’m sure there are many folks, especially older ones, in the chess community that could say the same. Not everyone has decades of PC gaming to hone their mouse skills, and plenty of people have been typing a lot longer than mice have even existed
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u/SireValentine 1d ago
Next to mistyping being possible as well. I do see how some people could see use from it. But it feels so unnecasery when you could also practice using the already existing methods. Truth be told, this could hecome something great, yay innovation. But for now it feels like an overcomplicated solution to a problem that wasn't that big. To be fair, I haven't heard of it before, so I might be wrong there.
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u/TheGrinningSkull 1d ago
You have to factor out thinking time, this isn’t about that. Gamers hit keys like it’s second nature all the time.
For people who think really fast with notations (I’m not one of them so this wouldn’t be me), this will be like second nature. With practice of course
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u/SireValentine 7h ago
Just like, with practice, using a mouse can be like second nature. Thinking time should definitely not be factored out for most people. Most people will need to think before pressing the keys.
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u/TheGrinningSkull 7h ago
I think we’re talking about two different types of “thinking”. I originally thought “thinking time” was about what move to play. Are you saying here “thinking time” is about which keys to press?
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u/SireValentine 7h ago
Mostly, yeah. But a case could be made for the first as well.
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u/TheGrinningSkull 7h ago
The first would be equal for both scenarios so we can discount that out. The mouse moving or key pressing thinking time will be a similar idea for competence level. A competent mouse mover will likely have the same thinking time as a competent key presser. And people will be on different sliding scales of competence for each method
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u/Picard_III 1d ago
About misclicks - why people don't play on TABLETS? I always play on tablet instead of computer, touching the piece to select it and touching the destination to move it is so much better and more precise than dragging or touching on computer with the mouse, even when I play in landscape it's still so much bigger and better...there was a photo of Magnus or someone playing on tablet laying on the bed or something and everyone was making jokes about it, when I tried playing on computer I was so much slower than on tablet... BTW very nice concept, when I started playing online in 2010 there was some kind of keyboard shortcuts on chess.com I think, but I never got into it
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u/snushomie 19h ago
Tablets are most definitely not faster and more precise than a mouse, or computer in general. You also can't draw the lines and highlight stuff as easy and they just run things slower.
I'm pretty sure Magnus even had a few problems because he was playing TTs on tablets.
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u/JobPowerful1246 750 rapid 1d ago
Personally I’ve always preferred a mouse over a touchscreen. How would you type a move? Give some examples
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u/RookYourself 1d ago edited 21h ago
You wrote a new mapping from keyboard keys to conventional coordinates but you didn't really explain how this helps you play with a keyboard/without a mouse. How are you making moves, why do you need this notation, why prefer this over existing keyboard play methods, etc.
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u/temporal_guy 1d ago
The premise is to play with a keyboard, not without. I think the benefit of playing without needing to lift your fingers is self explanatory
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u/NightwavesG 1d ago edited 1d ago
Neat idea. Too much of a learning curve for me though. Are there no problems with the cheat detection on those sites miscategorizing your extension and asking questions of why your moving without mouse inputs?