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In chess, exclamation points ("!") indicate good moves and the double exclamation point ("!!") is used for very strong moves. However, I do not know any symbol for "best moves". There are moves which may not be surprising or involve any particular skill but are objectively the best move or one of the best moves in a particular position. With the help of modern engines, it may not be too difficult to see if a move is "the best" in a certain position.

When analysing games, one knows immediately that there is no room for improvement for such moves if such a symbol is used; isn't it convenient?

Zuriel
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  • Interestingly enough -if memory serves me- in the Informator there was a symbol for unique moves (guess it was a square?). – emdio Sep 18 '20 at 15:50
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    @emdio I'd always heard it called box, and usually referred to a move that is the only (reasonable) one available. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_annotation_symbols#Move-related – Herb Sep 18 '20 at 16:44

2 Answers2

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Moves that are significantly worse than the best option are annotated with ?!. If the difference between the move in a game and the "best" move is not big enough, then it doesn't matter whether some engine gives one a 0.02 better evaluation than the other.

In some sense, you could argue that !, !! and no annotation at all already indicate that the move played was the best possible option (or in the latter case, just as good as it)

David
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What is a so called 'best' move ??

Are moves played by deep engines equivalent to real moves by real people with real limitations and genuine concerns really the same?

Who is to say what is 'best' when two people play.

I recently had a game (10min) against a higher rated opponent. He moved his queen and I took it. He resigned. What he did not see was that he could have mated me.

So was nxq best? Or should I have resigned as he would have been a piece up? Was his resigns best?? Or should he have mated me.

From my perspective nxq was the best move as he resigned.
Your view would be that nxq allowing mate in 2 was not best.

So just what is 'best' and who gets to define 'best' ??

yobmamamam
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