Chess annotation punctuation

Exclamation and question marks judging a move's quality.

Also known as: Move quality marks, Chess exclamation marks

Sport & gamesStandard profile

Meanings

Annotation marks judge a move: an exclamation mark for a good move, a question mark for a mistake, and doubled or mixed forms for stronger judgements. They are opinions rather than facts, and engine analysis has overturned many of the marks in older books.

Officially standardisedVerified fact
Judge the quality of a move using exclamation and question marks, singly, doubled or in combination.
Contexts: History
Common modern usageVerified fact
Carry an annotator's judgement rather than a fact of the position, and computer analysis has reversed many judgements recorded in mid-twentieth-century literature.
Contexts: History

Visual description

One or two upright strokes with dots beneath, or hooked strokes with dots, written after a move.

Symmetry: none
Orientation: upright

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Historical originModerate confidence: Moderate confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree, but early or supporting evidence is limited, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.

Sources

FIDE Laws of Chess, Appendix C: Algebraic Notation
Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) · retrieved 2026-08-02
The governing body's own handbook. Authoritative for the notation FIDE requires in competition — the piece letters, the capture and check marks, castling — and for nothing outside it. Annotation symbols expressing an opinion about a move are deliberately absent from the Laws and are not cited here.
Go (game)
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-22
Tertiary reference, cited for the conventional description of a mark, its usual name and where it is encountered. Where an issuing body defines the mark, that body is cited alongside and governs.
Chess annotation symbols
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-02
Tertiary reference. Cited for how a mark is written and read in ordinary practice, and for conventions no governing body issues. Never cited for a claim that a rule says something — the rulebooks below carry those.
Go rules and notation
Nihon Ki-in · retrieved 2026-08-23
The Japanese Go association, one of the bodies whose rules are in international use. Go has more than one rule set — Japanese, Chinese and AGA scoring differ — and records say where a claim is rule-set specific.

Last reviewed 2026-08-23

Part of

Board game and score notation

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Meanings

Officially standardisedVerified fact

Judge the quality of a move using exclamation and question marks, singly, doubled or in combination.

Contexts: History

Common modern usageVerified fact

Carry an annotator's judgement rather than a fact of the position, and computer analysis has reversed many judgements recorded in mid-twentieth-century literature.

Contexts: History

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Historical originModerate confidence: Moderate confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree, but early or supporting evidence is limited, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.

Sources

FIDE Laws of Chess, Appendix C: Algebraic Notation
Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) · retrieved 2026-08-02
The governing body's own handbook. Authoritative for the notation FIDE requires in competition — the piece letters, the capture and check marks, castling — and for nothing outside it. Annotation symbols expressing an opinion about a move are deliberately absent from the Laws and are not cited here.
Go (game)
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-22
Tertiary reference, cited for the conventional description of a mark, its usual name and where it is encountered. Where an issuing body defines the mark, that body is cited alongside and governs.
Chess annotation symbols
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-02
Tertiary reference. Cited for how a mark is written and read in ordinary practice, and for conventions no governing body issues. Never cited for a claim that a rule says something — the rulebooks below carry those.
Go rules and notation
Nihon Ki-in · retrieved 2026-08-23
The Japanese Go association, one of the bodies whose rules are in international use. Go has more than one rule set — Japanese, Chinese and AGA scoring differ — and records say where a claim is rule-set specific.

Last reviewed 2026-08-23