How to name Checkers moves?
In Chess there is this article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_notation_(chess) that describes moves names and the disambiguation (when to pieces of the same type can move to the same square), how this happens in Checkers?
For example, in the beginning of the game a3 and c3 can move to b4, if we want to move a3 the move name would be ab4, like in Chess?
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1 Answer
As only 32 possible play squares are available in Checkers the standard form of notation simply assigns each square a number, then records the start and end place for the move.
By convention the numbering starts at the leftmost square of the top row from the perspective of the White player:
A move is shown by listing the "from" and "to" square with a dash between them. For instance, 11-15 is the most popular Black starting move; Black moves the stone on square 11 to square 15. 22-18 in reply forms the "Single Corner" opening; with White moving the stone on square 22 to square 18.
Or to translate from your example a3 is square 12, and b4 is 16, so that move would be 12-16.
Due to the nature of Checkers in most cases no more information is needed than the start and endpoints of the stone, but sometimes if a capture is performed an x is used as the linking character, so following on from the above opening two moves 15x22 indicates Black takes the White stone.
The same space numbering is also used for annotation of an in-progress game, with the initial letter indicating who's to play, followed by stone locations with the first letter of the section indicating the colour, and "K"s to indicate a king.
For example the setup "W:WK4,K14,18,23,K27:BK5,16,K22,K32"
conveys the following board:
