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An exclamation mark marking a move the annotator judges strong.
Also known as: Strong move symbol, Chess exclamation mark
A single exclamation mark after a move means the annotator considers it a good move — often one that is hard to find. It is an opinion, and unlike the rest of chess notation no governing body defines it.
Marks a move the annotator judges good. The convention is near-universal in chess literature and entirely consistent, but it is a publishing convention rather than a rule: the FIDE Laws do not define it.
Expresses an evaluation, not a fact about the position, and two annotators may reasonably disagree about the same move. Engine analysis has made some historically celebrated exclamation marks controversial.
An exclamation mark — a vertical stroke above a dot — written after the move.
The exclamation mark praises a move; the question mark criticises it. They are opposites, and the pair is the base of the whole annotation scale.
Both belong to the annotation scale that runs from !! down to ??.