Annotation symbol

An annotation symbol adds a brief judgment to a recorded game. It can assess a move, as ! or ? does, or describe the resulting position, as =, ∞, or ± does. The symbol communicates an analytical idea without requiring a full sentence.

Move annotations

• !: good move
• ?: poor move or mistake
• !!: excellent or especially strong move
• ??: serious blunder
• !?: interesting or speculative move
• ?!: dubious move

These marks contain the judgment of the human or software annotator. Two authors may disagree over whether a move deserves ! or !?, and labels such as mistake or brilliant depend on the surrounding position.

Position assessments

Position symbols summarize who stands better or how clear the assessment is. The = symbol means balanced; ∞ means unclear; ± and ∓ favor White or Black. These are qualitative categories, not official results or exact numerical scores.

In PGN, many judgments are stored as Numeric Annotation Glyphs, codes such as $1 or $16. Software can render the stored code as the familiar visible mark.

Not every mark in chess notation is an annotation. The capture x, check +, checkmate #, and the = used in promotion have objective jobs inside the move notation. An annotation symbol adds an evaluation instead.