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Who first started to annotate chess moves with “!” for good & “?” for bad?!

EDIT: Two data points:

(1) 1859 "The Book of the First American Chess Congress." The annotated games have no exclamations or question marks, instead there are (generally critical) footnotes marked with asterisks, daggers etc, e.g.

13 B. to K. B. 4th.*

* This was scarcely advisable.

(2) 1895 Hastings Chess Tournament Book,

Plenty of exclamation marks, modestly encased in brackets. There are no question marks (perhaps that would have been thought rude). But typically the exclam is the answer to an inferior move discussed in a footnote, for example in Schiffers' annotations of Alvin vs Bird (Aug 5th) p 23:

34 R x Kt P[8] P x P (!)

[8] He ought to have played P x P, Q x P ; 35. Q B to B sq, &c.

However I seeEDIT: The current record shown in the comments thisanswers is not our earliest sighting of "!"that Lange's "Jahrbuch des Westdeutschen Schachbundes", which Noam Elkies has traced to 18871862 uses (!) and (?).

Who first started to annotate chess moves with “!” for good & “?” for bad?!

EDIT: Two data points:

(1) 1859 "The Book of the First American Chess Congress." The annotated games have no exclamations or question marks, instead there are (generally critical) footnotes marked with asterisks, daggers etc, e.g.

13 B. to K. B. 4th.*

* This was scarcely advisable.

(2) 1895 Hastings Chess Tournament Book,

Plenty of exclamation marks, modestly encased in brackets. There are no question marks (perhaps that would have been thought rude). But typically the exclam is the answer to an inferior move discussed in a footnote, for example in Schiffers' annotations of Alvin vs Bird (Aug 5th) p 23:

34 R x Kt P[8] P x P (!)

[8] He ought to have played P x P, Q x P ; 35. Q B to B sq, &c.

However I see in the comments this is not our earliest sighting of "!", which Noam Elkies has traced to 1887.

Who first started to annotate chess moves with “!” for good & “?” for bad?!

Two data points:

(1) 1859 "The Book of the First American Chess Congress." The annotated games have no exclamations or question marks, instead there are (generally critical) footnotes marked with asterisks, daggers etc, e.g.

13 B. to K. B. 4th.*

* This was scarcely advisable.

(2) 1895 Hastings Chess Tournament Book,

Plenty of exclamation marks, modestly encased in brackets. There are no question marks (perhaps that would have been thought rude). But typically the exclam is the answer to an inferior move discussed in a footnote, for example in Schiffers' annotations of Alvin vs Bird (Aug 5th) p 23:

34 R x Kt P[8] P x P (!)

[8] He ought to have played P x P, Q x P ; 35. Q B to B sq, &c.

EDIT: The current record shown in the answers is that Lange's "Jahrbuch des Westdeutschen Schachbundes", 1862 uses (!) and (?).

Who first started to annotate chess moves with “!” for good & “?” for bad?!

EDIT: Two data points:

(1) 1859 "The Book of the First American Chess Congress." The annotated games have no exclamations or question marks, instead there are (generally critical) footnotes marked with asterisks, daggers etc, e.g.

13 B. to K. B. 4th.*

  • This was scarcely advisable.

* This was scarcely advisable.

[Sorry, the second asterisk is not properly represented in chess.se.]

(2) 1895 Hastings Chess Tournament Book,

Plenty of exclamation marks, modestly encased in brackets. There are no question marks (perhaps that would have been thought rude). But typically the exclam is the answer to an inferior move discussed in a footnote, for example in Schiffers' annotations of Alvin vs Bird (Aug 5th) p 23:

34 R x Kt P[8] P x P (!)

[8] He ought to have played P x P, Q x P ; 35. Q B to B sq, &c.

However I see in the comments this is not our earliest sighting of "!", which Noam Elkies has traced to 1887.

Who first started to annotate chess moves with “!” for good & “?” for bad?!

EDIT: Two data points:

(1) 1859 "The Book of the First American Chess Congress." The annotated games have no exclamations or question marks, instead there are (generally critical) footnotes marked with asterisks, daggers etc, e.g.

13 B. to K. B. 4th.*

  • This was scarcely advisable.

[Sorry, the second asterisk is not properly represented in chess.se.]

(2) 1895 Hastings Chess Tournament Book,

Plenty of exclamation marks, modestly encased in brackets. There are no question marks (perhaps that would have been thought rude). But typically the exclam is the answer to an inferior move discussed in a footnote, for example in Schiffers' annotations of Alvin vs Bird (Aug 5th) p 23:

34 R x Kt P[8] P x P (!)

[8] He ought to have played P x P, Q x P ; 35. Q B to B sq, &c.

However I see in the comments this is not our earliest sighting of "!", which Noam Elkies has traced to 1887.

Who first started to annotate chess moves with “!” for good & “?” for bad?!

EDIT: Two data points:

(1) 1859 "The Book of the First American Chess Congress." The annotated games have no exclamations or question marks, instead there are (generally critical) footnotes marked with asterisks, daggers etc, e.g.

13 B. to K. B. 4th.*

* This was scarcely advisable.

(2) 1895 Hastings Chess Tournament Book,

Plenty of exclamation marks, modestly encased in brackets. There are no question marks (perhaps that would have been thought rude). But typically the exclam is the answer to an inferior move discussed in a footnote, for example in Schiffers' annotations of Alvin vs Bird (Aug 5th) p 23:

34 R x Kt P[8] P x P (!)

[8] He ought to have played P x P, Q x P ; 35. Q B to B sq, &c.

However I see in the comments this is not our earliest sighting of "!", which Noam Elkies has traced to 1887.

1859 no
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Laska
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Who first started to annotate chess moves with “!” for good & “?” for bad?!

EDIT: I had a look inTwo data points:

(1) 1859 "The Book of the First American Chess Congress." The annotated games have no exclamations or question marks, instead there are (generally critical) footnotes marked with asterisks, daggers etc, e.g.

13 B. to K. B. 4th.*

  • This was scarcely advisable.

[Sorry, the second asterisk is not properly represented in chess.se.]

(2) 1895 Hastings Chess Tournament Book, where the 22 players annotated one another's games. 

Plenty of exclamation marks, modestly encased in brackets. There are no question marks (perhaps that would have been thought rude). But typically the exclam is the answer to an inferior move discussed in a footnote, for example in Schiffers' annotations of Alvin vs Bird (Aug 5th) p 23:

34 R x Kt P[8] P x P (!)

[8] He ought to have played P x P, Q x P ; 35. Q B to B sq, &c.

However I see in the comments this is not our earliest sighting of "!", which Noam Elkies has traced to 1887.

Who first started to annotate chess moves with “!” for good & “?” for bad?!

EDIT: I had a look in the 1895 Hastings Chess Tournament Book, where the 22 players annotated one another's games. Plenty of exclamation marks, modestly encased in brackets. There are no question marks (perhaps that would have been thought rude). But typically the exclam is the answer to an inferior move discussed in a footnote, for example in Schiffers' annotations of Alvin vs Bird (Aug 5th) p 23:

34 R x Kt P[8] P x P (!)

[8] He ought to have played P x P, Q x P ; 35. Q B to B sq, &c.

However I see in the comments this is not our earliest sighting of "!", which Noam Elkies has traced to 1887.

Who first started to annotate chess moves with “!” for good & “?” for bad?!

EDIT: Two data points:

(1) 1859 "The Book of the First American Chess Congress." The annotated games have no exclamations or question marks, instead there are (generally critical) footnotes marked with asterisks, daggers etc, e.g.

13 B. to K. B. 4th.*

  • This was scarcely advisable.

[Sorry, the second asterisk is not properly represented in chess.se.]

(2) 1895 Hastings Chess Tournament Book, 

Plenty of exclamation marks, modestly encased in brackets. There are no question marks (perhaps that would have been thought rude). But typically the exclam is the answer to an inferior move discussed in a footnote, for example in Schiffers' annotations of Alvin vs Bird (Aug 5th) p 23:

34 R x Kt P[8] P x P (!)

[8] He ought to have played P x P, Q x P ; 35. Q B to B sq, &c.

However I see in the comments this is not our earliest sighting of "!", which Noam Elkies has traced to 1887.

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