How in chess notation one decides what mark put on a move like if it’s a strong move (!), weak move (?) very strong move (!!) or very weak move (??) if the game is not ended yet? A move could appear weak but actually leads to a strong sequence
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There is actually notation for a move that looks bad but may turn out good: ?!
For the others, sometimes there are moves that are just objectively bad or dubious with a very low likelihood of leading to something better. Chess is a very deeply analyzed game. Most opening moves and end game sequences are studied intensely and their relative strengths known.
Those annotations are not an official record of the game in the same way as the notation of the actual moves. If someone felt the need to add these annotations during the game, they could indeed mark as weak a move that turned out to be strong, but there would be nothing to stop them from going back and changing the annotation. Almost all the time, these annotations are added after the game by commentators. They’re primarily used to draw attention to whatever part of the game the commentator thinks is interesting.
It is supposed to reflect what a spectator would be thinking. Or, should be thinking. Basically, short versions of “Why did they do this?” or “What a great idea!”.
These marks are added as part of analysis when the game has finished, the players only write the moves without annotation during the game.
It’s entirely subjective. Much like in a soccer game when the commentator is commenting on good/bad plays, it’s pretty subjective, but an experienced commentator will have a pretty good idea what a good/bad move looks like.
However, there are also engines that measure centipawn gains/loss. A centipawn is a unit that is defined to be equal to 1/100th of a pawn, so a good (!) move might gain you 50 centipawn units while a bad one (??) might lose you 500. That is what is used for engines which automatically commentate
With that, engines can factor in things like player rating, how many possible good moves were made, time available, etc. to automatically generate puzzles from high level play. Did a GM lose 100 centipawn units on this move? It’s probably due to something really hard to spot, and is a great learning opportunity for novices.
If my opponent was doing this DURING the game, I would go to the arbiter and inform him that my opponent was taking notes.
Back when I played chess competitively, I would use the ‘?’ notation liberally during the game (on opponents’ moves) and try to let my opponent see. Power move.
I was 8-12 or so, not sure how effective this tactic was.
Long ago when the Earth was young the military base where I worked installed a new Emergency Command Center. When it came time to try it out for the first time, I was tasked with being “Log Recorder.” The job consisted of taking notes of who did what when. I was chastised for using this type of chess notation in the margin of the logbook. Since I was a low level nobody the War Lords thought it inappropriate for me to comment on their actions.
TIL that if someone ever annotates me playing chess that all of my moves will have a ?? after them.
I just want to add that technically you are not allowed to add these during competetive games. It counts as notes and you are not allowed to have/make any of those.
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