Thanks Aijp.
So equal over plus would mean "slight advantage to black"?
What about a plus sign over a minute sign, or a minus sign over a plus sign?
I know +- means advantage to white and -+ is advantage to black, so I would assume plus over minus is advantage to white and minus over plus is advantage to black. Am I right in my assumption?
Anyone?
Hey, I found a site that has several charts explaining the symbols.
Here is the link:
http://www.markalowery.net/Chess/Symbols/symbols.html
Hope this helps.
Thanks for those charts Hoklanie! 
Can you please post the link to the charts ?
Its not a good book if it doesnt explain its symbols ... are you sure it doesnt ?
These are standard Informant symbols. You should simply know them, like from birth or something.
It may help to know who Ziryab was, too:
It may help to know who Ziryab was, too:
I introduced Europeans to chess when I was exiled from Baghdad.
Here are the main chess annotation symbols:
+- white is winning
-+ black is winning
+/- advantage white
-/+ advantage black
+/= slight advantage white
=/+ slight advantage black
= position is equal
1-0 white won the game
0-1 black won the game
1/2-1/2 result was a draw
(These are all used in evaluating a position, generally after a sample line of play is providedinanalysis, or after a critical point in the game where it seems appropriate to provide a clear evaluation; very useful in opening books as well to save space.)
! good move
? bad move
!? interesting move
?! dubious move
?? blunder
!! brilliant move
I think ??! is sort of speculative move; an adventurous blunder!
--> with attack
arrow up is "with initiative"
triangle is "with the idea of"
square is "only move"
half-circle with line on top is "better is"
infinity sign is unclear (compensation for material if is infinity under = sign)
----->
<---- is "with counterplay" (like the attack is going in both directions; pretty cool, huh?)
A target (a circle with a plus sign in it) is "zeitnot" which means time pressure--often this can be used to explain why, say, 0-1 was suddenly posted
Not sure if there is a symbol for other interesting German chess words like zwischenzug or zugwang, but it would be interesting if they do exist.
I began studying chess just before everything became digitized, around the turn of the century, and am still fond of good ol' books. A pity it's so difficult to find this stuff and that it's been lost. Very useful stuff. Funny enough, I've been teaching this stuff to my students a lot this week and they seem to really like it; useful shorthand, allows you to make sentences with just a few symbols.
Aha, this one is more detailed - chess symbols: http://www.enpassant.dk/chess/palview/p3manual/ini/symtips.htm
There is a zugzwang symbol - circle with a dot in the middle:
What about something like this
I recently purchased Russians versus Fischer, and I'm confused with some of the symbols it uses.
For example, in the books first featured game, Fischer-Bronstein, it goes like this when it gets to the tenth move:
10. d4 (10 a4, Fischer-Kalme, New York 1960/61, 10...Bb7 11 d4 Na5 DELTA ...c7-c5=) 10... Nb6
By DELTA, I mean a triangle. I assume the = sign means after ...c7-c5, the position is equal. But I don't understand when the pawn is supposed to go from c7 to c5.
Further along in the same game comes this:
21 Qe2 (21 Nd5 Bxd5 22 exd5 Qc5infinitysign) 22... Rfd8
I can't figure out what the infinity sign (sideways eight, you know what I mean) is doing there.
Further along again, I come across this in the same game:
36 Qe1 (36 Qxf4 exf4 37 Rd4 = DELTA Rxf4, Bxa4) 36... h4
The return of the triangle. And a comma! Can someone shed some light on that please?
In the second game, Averbakh-Fischer, this happens:
20 Kf1 (20 Rg4? Rxg4 21. Bxg4 Re8plusminus; 20 Rg3?! Rae8; 20 Qd3?! cxb2 21 Rb1 Rae8 DELTA ...Rxe3 or Qd3?! cxb2 21 Rb1 Rae8 DELTA ...Rxe3 or ...Ne5xc4) 20...cxb2
plusminus is simply a minus sign above a plus sign. Later in the third game, Fischer-Tal, I see 17 b4plusequal
plusequal being a plus sign over an equal sign.
Then I see an equal sign over a plus sign.
Triangles? Plus over equal? Equal over plus? Infinity signs?
Can someone help?
Thanks.