Guess The Move Vs Annotated Games

Hello,

My question is, what do you think is more beneficial for improvement, using guess the move software, such as Lucas Chess, to guess the moves of various grandmaster games by players such as capablanca. After you guess each move the computer rates the move and compares it to the master’s move, if the move was different.

Or to play over annotated game collections of various grandmasters over the board. 

Having completed a lot of games in both methods I’m not sure which is more beneficial to your improvement as a player. When you play over annotated games and try to guess the moves, there is no way to compare the quality of your moves objectively. For instance, if both c4 and b3 are roughly equally good then if you play b3 but the master played c4 you could end up thinking your idea was not good. Moreover, if the move you’re thinking of was a blunder, you might never find out since you just guess the move then see why the master made a different move. The main benefit of annotated game collections is the annotations. But it seems like often the annotations just give you the answer, instead of getting you to think about why the master made that move.

Now compare this to playing guess the move on software such as Lucas Chess or Chesstempo. Here your moves are scored based on the engine accuracy, if you play a move differently from the master. So you’ll know if your move was good, or if the plan you came up with was good even if it was different than the masters. The other potential upside is that when you make a move and you see the master’s move, you have to think to come up with the reason the master made that move, rather than it being told to you. This could potentially make the ideas of the position stick in your head more.

TL;DR: What is better, playing over annotated game collections, or Playing guess the move on chesstempo/Lucas Chess. 

Study of chess is neither guessing moves, nor playing over annotated games.
You have to ask yourself: why?
Why is the guessed move wrong?
What happens with your guess instead of the grandmaster move?
Why did the grandmaster play move X?
What happens after move Y instead?

Well yes, that’s the point with them.