Across the bottom will be the letters from “a” to “h. " the letters will not be capitalized. There will be numbers going up the sides from “1” to “8. " Each square has an address. The first square on the board is “a1. " To represent a move, start with the first letter of the piece, capitalized, then write the square you moved it to. If two different pieces that start with the same letter can move to the same square, then include the square the piece originated from. Each piece starts with the first letter of its name, except for the knight, which starts with a capital “N. " If it is a pawn, then just write the name of the square it moves to with no capital letter. Castling is written 0-0 for king side castling and 0-0-0 for queen side. There is more to explain about how to notate a chess game, but for now, just follow the directions to get to a certain position where the visual exercise will begin.
Next play 2. Bc4 Qf6. Next 3. Nf3 Qg6. 4. Nc3 Qxg2. When there is a small letter x, it means capture. So the Queen has captured the pawn on g2.
Visualize what the board is going to look like after you play Bxf7. See the piece there. While visualizing the piece there, ask “what are all of black one’s options for getting out of check?”. How many are there? That’s right, there are three: The king can capture the bishop on f7, or he can move to where the queen used to be, on d8, or he can move forward one square to e7. Visualize the king capturing the piece on f7. See in your mind the new position after these two moves have been made. Hold the image in your mind as clearly as you can. Next ask what white can do from here. What moves can white make in this new position where black one’s king is on the f7 square? Name several possible moves, and look for one that checks because you always want to look at all checks and captures first. See anything good? You could check by Ng5 but there is a problem with that. The queen is guarding that square and will capture. So how can you move the queen away. How about put the rook on the g-file? Visualize the Rook moving to g1. Now where can the queen go? Only one square. Visualize the queen moving to h3. Now you can check with the knight. Notice anything else about Ng5? That’s right, it’s a fork. You win the queen. So you sacrificed the bishop to win the queen. Not bad. Do you see any better moves for the black queen? No. Probably just to take the rook on g1 to get as much as he can out of it. Can you reverse the order of these moves so he can’t do that? How about instead of Bxf7 first you do that second, after chasing the queen to h3. Now you can get the queen with a minimum of losses. Of course, you also may have tipped off your opponent to your plans by chasing his queen to the forking square.
