What is a great move in chess?
A great move (!) is the one move that changes the game: often the only good move in the position, or the one that punishes your opponent’s mistake.
A great move is the move the game hinged on. It is often the only move that holds the position, or the move that punishes your opponent’s mistake and turns the game. In a game review it gets a single !, one step short of brilliant.
What does a single ! mean in chess?
In annotated games, ! marks a good move, especially a surprising one, and !! an exceptional one. Commentators also have a separate sign, □, for the only move in a position.
Game reviews took the ! and gave it a rule of their own. On chess.com, a great move is a move that was critical to the outcome: it turned a losing position into an equal one, an equal one into a winning one, or it was the only good move in the position.
What makes a move great?
Two things, and a move needs only one of them.
- It is the only good move. Everything else loses material, the position or the game
- It punishes a mistake. Your opponent slipped, and this is the move that makes them pay for it
Letting that chance go is a miss.
What a great move doesn’t need is to be hard to find. That is the job of the brilliant label.
Why did an obvious move get a great?
Because great looks at what was at stake. How clever the move was doesn’t come into it. Taking back a piece, getting out of check or capturing a queen your opponent left hanging can all get a !: the recapture because everything else loses, the free queen because taking it punishes the blunder.
That is why players are sometimes surprised to see a ! on a move they played without thinking. The review is telling you the move mattered.
Is a great move better than the best move?
It is usually the best move too, or very close to it. Best tells you it was the strongest option. Great adds that the alternatives were bad, or that the move changed the course of the game.
| Label | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Brilliant | A strong move that is hard to find, most often a sacrifice |
| Great | The only good move, or the one that punishes your opponent’s mistake |
| Best | The move the engine would have played |
| Excellent | Almost as good as the best move |
For sacrifices, see what makes a move brilliant. For how best and excellent differ, see what best, excellent and good mean.
What do great moves look like?
Plenty of great moves are captures that punish a blunder. The ones that teach you more are the moves that save a position or win an ending. Here are two from real games on chess.com.
Checks that save the game
The only move that wins
Does Lichess show great moves?
No. Lichess’s analysis only marks inaccuracies, mistakes and blunders, and players add ! and □ by hand in their studies. Chesslord marks the great moves in your Lichess games too.
How do you find more great moves?
Great moves come up when one move holds and everything else loses. These habits help you find the one move that works.
- Punish mistakes on the spot
- When your opponent slips, the chance is usually there for one move only. Look for the capture, check or fork right away, before they get to fix it.
- In a bad position, look at your opponent’s threats first
- Before you look for your own moves, work out exactly what you have to stop. Then look for the moves that stop it.
- Slow down when only one move works
- If most of your moves seem to lose, that is the moment to spend your time. Check every check, capture and king move.
- Don’t give up in lost positions
- Checks that never stop, stalemate tricks, a pawn that gets through: lost games do get saved, and the move that saves them is usually great.
- Do defensive puzzles
- Puzzles where you have to find the only defence train the side of your game that attacking puzzles skip.
A game review shows where your game turned, move by move. Insights sort every move you played, from brilliant to blunder.
How Chesslord helps
Move-by-move game review