Attack annotation symbol

The arrows → and ← act as compact comments. They indicate that one side has an attack, meaning coordinated threats against the king, a valuable piece, or another important target. They do not necessarily trace a piece's route or instruct anyone to move right or left.

In the Chess Informant symbol system, direction distinguishes the attacking side. In Portable Game Notation (PGN), a text format for storing games, the same idea can be saved as a Numeric Annotation Glyph, or NAG. $40 means White has the attack, while $41 means Black has the attack.

Having the attack does not automatically mean being winning. An offensive can be dangerous yet insufficient, and the opponent may still defend or create counterplay. It is also not identical to having the initiative: initiative describes who keeps posing questions that demand replies, while attack describes more concrete offensive pressure.