What does all the numbers mean?

Hello everybody!

Maybe its already asked and explained, but I dont know how to surch for it.

When you play a live chess game, at the right side the moves are written down and there are also graphical and numerical indications of how good the move was. At least so I interpretate these thing. But I cant find a nearer explanation. What exactly says it, if there is - for example - white 40.2 and black 8.8?

And the same with the analysis. What does it mean if you see a rating -3.03 for a move? Is it in "pawn counting"?

And again: best move 42% Percent of what? and what is average difference, difference between what? I couldn´t find any explanation, so I may ask here.

Thants for help

That's probably not the evaluation. It's just the time spent on each move.

It wouldn't make sense to give an evaluation during the game.

https://support.chess.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1444875-what-do-the-computer-evaluation-numbers-mean-like-2-25-

What does it mean if you see a rating -3.03 for a move? 

I can help with this one. It refers the positional evaluation, based on material and positional considerations. For example, +0.72 would be slightly better for white whereas -3.03 would be a lot better for black.

Thank you for the explanation!

I thougt I already answered, but its not here. So, dont think Im not grateful. Yes, it must be the time white or black needed. That makes absolutely sense! And the plus and minus rating is also clear now.

But still something is unclear. And a new question was rising in my mind: is there any possibility to find the so called "excellent" and "good" moves? I mean at the analysis.

Hey Guys and Girls! Somebody must know the answers! Somebody must have made these site and also have to know about its mysteries. Is nobody from the cess.com staff around?

Have a nice day!

Sorry, just wanted to highlite and quote the questions which are not yet answered. Not everything, because a lot of these first questions are cleare now. Sorry. Especially the last ones from the analysis is a big question mark for me.

The staff seldom read the forum. They rarely bother to provide much documentation on the formulae for their calculations. There is some information to be found on the Help pages sometimes but it is often outdated. One could wish that they would assign someone to these items but it never seems to happen.

However, those two items seem pretty straightforward.

% best moves is # of moves marked "best" (shown in green font) divided by total moves.

Avg. Difference is the average difference in the computer evaluation of your moves and that of the "best" moves. If you played all best moves, the average difference would be zero.

So I just have to say: thank you!

usually anything that involves the queen being moved to the middle of the board is very high

I wondered about this too, its the time spent on each move.

Yes!

Thank you!

Best move at 42% would mean that in 42% of the time you played best possible move. 

Sorry, I respectfully disagree with the "time per move" answer.  What good does it do a person just to know how long it took our worthy competitors to make a move?  I support the other option where the numbers and graph off to the right of each move represents "quality/strength of move".  I think it is simply an aide to reveal what the analysis engine thinks of your play at that point.  Perhaps this would be a good time for the folks who actually do the programming could ring in with the precise answer?  Jerry    

During a game, time per move is shown and it won't, and should not show quality. Quality is for post game analysis.

ok  on further review I yield.  It does appear such is true  Seems unnecessary to have such but hey, it's their site - and a good one to boot  Thanks

Although I am a bit late, I have wondered the same thing as Archaja, regarding the numbers seen to the right of each move during a live game. I too was unable to find any information in the help section or anywhere else. My theory, based on many games, is that the number represents a live evaluation by the chess.com AI engine of each move, based on the strengths and/or weaknesses of the move at that moment. The scale appears to go somewhere from 0.0 to 3:00:0, with most moves ranging from 0.0 to 75.00 and the best moves scoring between 1:00 and 2:00, with the rarest moves reaching 3:00:0. I have confirmed this by comparing the live move rating with post game analysis by the engine. 

However, this is just a theory. Would like to get it confirmed by chess.com. 

Hallo manofminde. I clearly think, notmtwain is absolutely right! these are not evaluation numbers, but the time, each party spent on time. I had during some games a look for the numbers after this discussion here and the longness of the bar correlates absolutely with the time for a move (if you think long, the bar is long, if you think very quickly, the bar is short, same with the opponent). And by the way, the kind of numbers is not the same as in the analysis. Never you have nagative Numbers (-1,3) that show you, that black is better. And vice versa there are never numbers at the analysis which say i.e. 1:05.9

Wow, thank you Archaja for the clarification! I am glad that these numbers will no longer distract me and make me second guess my moves! Thanks. 

I too was wondering the exact same thing. I believe they should implement a simple mouse hover-on function for all objects in the interface so that when you hover on an object, a pop-up explains what the object you're pointing to means/does.

@RayLation: Yes, maybe that would be good. But what should all the clever people who are in the forum do, if not answering our small stupid questions ?