A New Notation for a Game Where the Key Action is Disappearance

When I designed EXPTIME CHESS, I faced an interesting challenge: how to notate a move that is neither a standard movement nor a capture in the classical sense? The key action here is the erasure of one's own piece after declaring an attack.

Standard chess notation with the x symbol for capture only creates confusion here. The notation Kxa1 gives the false impression that the piece on a1 was "captured." But that's not the case. It is the attacker that disappears, while the target remains untouched.

Therefore, I propose using a simple yet visually precise form:

(Kb2)-a1

How to read this and why it works

The parentheses ( ) — highlight the subject of the action, the piece committing the fatal act. They effectively quarantine it, immediately making it clear: something will happen to this piece.

The content of the parentheses Kb2 — the standard designation of the piece and its starting square. Everything is as in ordinary chess.

The dash - — is the action "arrow." It connects the attacker and the target.

The final square a1 — is not the destination for the piece. These are the coordinates of the target, whose presence on this square provoked the attack and the subsequent erasure of the piece Kb2.

Thus, the notation (Kb2)-a1 unambiguously states: "The Kernelix on b2 attacked the piece on a1 and was erased." The piece on a1 remains.

This notation is not just a technical tool. It is a reflection of the game's philosophy. It shifts the focus from the result ("what was taken") to the process and the cause ("who and for what purpose disappeared"). It makes the logic of EXPTIME CHESS transparent right in the game score, turning it into a clear protocol of a system failure, where every move is a log entry about resource deallocation.