The game editor

A game opens in the editor with a double click in the list or with File › Open game (⌘O); a new one with New game (⌘N). Each game has its own window, and you can keep as many open as you like; opening a game that is already open brings its window to the front. Studies open in the same window.

On the left the players, with tournament and round: a click opens Game data, like File › Edit game data… (⌘I). For a study, in their place, Title and Notes. Below, the Notation. In the middle the board, with the evaluation bar and, if the game has times, the clock above and below; under the board, the move bar. On the right the Engine and the explorer. At the bottom, the symbols. The columns widen by dragging the border between them. In the toolbar, Print and Save.

A new game suggests today’s date and the rate of play and time control of the last game you entered; if that one was no more than three days ago, in a tournament not yet over, the tournament and the next round too.

Moves

You move by dragging the piece, or with a click on the piece and one on the square; the possible squares are marked. On promotion you choose the piece.

Variations make themselves: a move different from the one that follows in the game opens a variation, the same move simply goes forward, even if it has a comment, a symbol or a time. In the notation, variations are folded behind ▶, and open by themselves when the board enters them; the button at the top opens or closes them all.

In your games, with Pro, the notation also marks your repertoire: where you left it, and where your opponent played a move you hadn’t foreseen.

A right click on a move has Delete from here: it removes that move and everything after it. If it removes the rest of the main line, the first variation takes its place. It does not ask to confirm: ⌘Z undoes it.

Moving through the game

Where the game branches, → opens Continue with…: the main line is already chosen, ↑ ↓ change the choice, another → confirms, ← closes. Last move goes to the end of the main line.

The Flip board button turns the board round, with the bar and the clocks.

Comments

↩ on the move, a double click in the notation, or the Comment button under the board. The comment goes after the move, or before if you choose so. The text goes into the game as you type.

Symbols

The bar at the bottom puts the symbols of chess books on the current move. Each symbol has its own key, written in the tip that appears when you hover over it:

• the quality of the move (!, ?, !!, ??, !?, ?!, □ and the missed chance) — the keys 1 to 8;
• the position (= equal position, ∞, ⩲, ⩱, ±, ∓, +−, −+) — the row below, Q to I;
• the special symbols (novelty, development, initiative, attack, counterplay, time trouble, compensation, zugzwang) — A to K;
• the editorial ones (with the idea, directed against, better is, worse is, equivalent is, editorial comment) — Z to N.

One symbol per group: choosing another of the same group replaces it, choosing the same one again removes it. The quality symbol also appears on the board, on the arrival square. The keys work by their position on the keyboard, whatever its language: the tip shows the letter of yours.

Arrows and coloured squares

With the right button: dragging from one square to another draws an arrow, a click on a square circles it. The colour depends on the key you hold down:

Drawing the same arrow again in the same colour removes it; in another colour it recolours it. Arrows and squares belong to the move you draw them on.

Times

The Move time button writes for the current move the Clock left after playing it, or the Time spent thinking about it: 90, 1:30 and 0:01:30 are all a minute and a half. You confirm with ↩, or by moving to another move; an empty field removes the time. When the game has times, the clocks beside the board show them move by move.

The engine

The switch on the Engine card, or Board › Engine analysis (⌥⌘E), turns on Arasan, the engine included in the app, on the position on the board, and follows it move by move. When a window opens it is always off. It works on the Mac, without the network, with half of its cores.

With − and + you choose how many lines to see, from one to five. At the top are the evaluation, from White’s side, and the depth reached; the search stops at depth 30, and the + beside it lets it go on until you move to another move. Evaluations can be read on the card and in the bar beside the board.

Each line has its evaluation and the moves, numbered as in the notation: “13.” before a White move, “12…” when it is Black’s turn. When you move the mouse over the engine’s lines the search stops, so they do not change while you read them, and the move under the pointer is shown on the board (which goes opaque). A click on a move plays the line up to there: where it matches the game it follows it, where it leaves it a variation is born, and at the end of the game it extends it. ⌘Z removes the whole line.

Automatic analysis

The Automatic analysis button, at the bottom of the Engine card (or Board › Automatic analysis…), has Arasan go through the whole main line and annotate it: the verdict on the moves, the best line where there is a mistake, the accuracy of both players. See Automatic analysis. Your comments and symbols stay; the engine’s are shown only with the engine button on, at the top of the Notation.

An analysed game has a ⓘ next to the button, the Analysis summary:

• at the top, how the game was decided: for example “Lost at one move: …” or “The advantage slipped: …”. A click takes you to that move;
• the evaluation graph: a click, or a drag, takes you to the move; a dot, in the colour of the symbol, marks each of the engine’s !!, !, ?!, ? and ??, and a line the move on the board;
• White’s and Black’s accuracy, and beside it how many moves of each the engine marked !!, !, ?!, ? and ??: a click on a number takes you to that player’s next move with that symbol;
• Show analysis in the notation, the same switch as the button in the Notation;
• the engine with its version, the depth and the date.

The summary stays open while you move through the game.

Undo

Edit › Undo (⌘Z) removes the last change, and Redo (⇧⌘Z) puts it back: moves and variations, an engine line played with a click, Delete from here, comments, symbols, arrows and coloured squares, times, game data, automatic analysis. The menu says what it undoes. A comment typed in one go, or a visit to the Game data window, is a single step. The board goes back to the move where the change was.

Saving

Nothing saves itself: moves, comments, data and analysis wait for Save (⌘S). The dot in the window’s red close button says there are changes to save, and when you close the window, or quit the app, the app asks what to do with them. To go back to the game as it was saved, close without saving.

If the same game was changed in another window while it was open here, the data is merged field by field; the moves and comments changed elsewhere, instead, are not overwritten, and the app says so.

The move bar

Under the board, from the left: Comment and Move time; first move, previous move, next move and last move; Flip board (⌘R). Then the magnifying glass, which searches the archive for the position on the screen (Search this position) or makes it the start of a new study (New study from here), and Share: Copy image, Copy FEN, Copy PGN, Save image… and Share image…. The image is the diagram of the position with your board, from the side you are looking from, with the move’s arrows and coloured squares; the PGN is the game as it is in the window, with the changes not yet saved.

The Board menu

Everything you do on the board is also in the Board menu, with its keys: Previous move ←, Next move →, First move ⌘←, Last move ⌘→, Flip board ⌘R, Search this position, New study from here; and in the editor Comment… ↩, Move time…, Annotations (the symbols, each with its key), Delete from here, Engine analysis ⌥⌘E, Automatic analysis… and, for a study without moves, Set up position…. The keys without ⌘, and ⌘← ⌘→, work for the board only when you are not typing: in a comment or in a study’s title they are text.

Print in the toolbar, or File › Print… (⌘P), prints the game or study as it is in the window, or saves it as a PDF: see Printing and PDF.