Classic chess rules

Recording moves

In formal competition, each player is obliged to record each move as it is played in a chess notation in order to settle disputes about illegal positions, overstepping time control, and making claims of draws by the fifty move rule or repetition of position. Algebraic chess notation is the accepted standard for recording matches today. There are other systems such as ICCF numeric notation for international correspondence chess and the obsolete descriptive chess notation.

Offers of a draw are indicated by writing "=". Notations about the time on the clocks can be made. If a player has less than five minutes left to complete all of his moves, he is not required to record the moves (unless a delay of at least thirty seconds per move is being used). The scoresheet must be made available to the arbiter at all times. A player may respond to an opponent's move before writing it down (Schiller 2003:25–26).