How to annotate a chess game properly ?
That's a good questions. It depends much on the audience you have. A master needs different annotations than an advanced player or a beginner. I think chess game annotations should at least explain some parts of the game verbally. Just variants and evaluation symbols are not enough. More written explanations improve the chess game analysis and present more value for the reader.
In times of ELO 3000 engines at hands of every serious chess writer, all analysis should be checked with the engines, not just produced with the engines. The author should understand the ideas behind the moves and should be able to explain them to his readers.
Diagrams improve readability for the interested reader and should be used as much as possible. For online presentation there are no space limits. A replay chess board is improving the usability for the reader.
Here at Chessfriend.com we use both ways. Text with diagrams and online replay of the same game.
Why?
- the text is easier to read when formatted properly
- reader can print formatted text much better
- search engines cannot read the information when it is published only with the java replayer
- and when the search engines cannot read the information they don't add it to their index
- and what is not in the search engine index cannot be found by interested users
And as we have unlimited space, we can easily use both ways for a better user experience.
When we publish a game here, we try do give the following details about the game when possible:
- Full name of the players
- Tournament
- Location
- Year (when available date)
- ELO ratings of the players (when available)
- Result
- All moves
- Our analysis
- Citings of anotations of other authors
Last Updated on Saturday, 20 October 2012 00:43