Origin Square

Home * Chess * Squares * Origin Square

The Origin Square of a move, also called initial square, source square, from- or departure square, is the square occupied by a piece about to move. The from-square is usually part of the move code, while it is derived from giving the moving piece and target square in Standard Algebraic Notation, where the origin square is (partly) omitted except to resolve ambiguity.

In piece wise move generation, the origin squares are subject of an outer loop over all pieces, while the target squares are subject of an inner loop. Direction-wise move generation traverses target squares per direction and generally requires more effort to determine the from-squares.

See also

• Algebraic Chess Notation
• Encoding Moves
• Move Generation
• Square Attacked By
• Target Square

Forum Posts

• Determining From squares by David Whitten, CCC, December 04, 2011

Up one Level