Descriptive notation is a
notation for recording
chess games, and at one time was the most popular notation in English- and Spanish-speaking countries . It was used in Europe until it was superseded by
algebraic notation, introduced by
Philipp Stamma in 1737. Algebraic notation is more concise and requires less effort to avoid ambiguity, but much older literature uses descriptive notation. Descriptive notation exists in many language-based variants, the most prevalent being
English descriptive notation and
Spanish descriptive notation. Natural language was generally used to describe moves in early chess literature, and is the ultimate source of all forms of descriptive notation. Over time abbreviations became common and a system of notation gradually evolved. By the time of
Howard Staunton's
The Chess-Player's Handbook (1847) a common first move for White was recorded as "P. to K's 4th."; this was later reduced to "P-K4". Notably, in the back of the book Staunton offers brief descriptions of long algebraic notation, noting its adoption by "
Alexandre,
Jaenisch, the '
Handbuch,' and in Germany generally" , and of "Koch's Notation" , now generally known as
ICCF numeric notation.