Using Tarrasch Chess GUI to annotate

Question

I just started using Tarrasch so I am learning how it works.

I usually play on chess.com and after the game I ask for the computer analysis which usually when an annotation is added it first adds the variation that should have been played and then the best variation after the actual move something like the following:

12.Ng5 Ng4?? ( 12... Qe7 13. Nb1 h6 14. Nf3 b6 15. Nc3 Ba6 16. Nb5 ) ( 12... Ng4 13. Nxe6 Qe7 14. Nxf8 Kxf8 15. Bxd5 Ndf6 16. Bc4 )

So I am adding it exactly like this on Tarrasch but when I select only the first variation and do a "Promote comment to moves" it seems to change all the comment but only the first variation is playable, the second one remains as just text and is not considered as moves.

I tried to select the second variation and do a "Promote variation" but it changed all of the rest of the game.

Just to make sure I am being clear I want to add at least two variations for a specific move in my annotations and I haven't been able to figure out how to do it with Tarrasch.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I got in touch with Bill Forster, the developer who created the software, and this is what he replied. It worked for me so I hope it will be useful for somebody else:

I did some experiments with your use case and I admit it is hardly obvious how Tarrasch is handling your quite reasonable attempts - in fact what you are doing should really work, so sadly I must admit a bug.

However there is a workaround - Start with the second variation first. Position the cursor just before the open parenthesis that introduces the second variation [so before "( 12...Ng4 etc"]. Then promote that with "Promote rest of comment to moves". Hopefully that will work. Then promote the 12...Qe7 variation. I think this method can be extended to any number of these kind of "peer" variations (by this I mean variations that are not subvariations). Promote the last one first and work backwards.

I tried this with more than two variations and going from the last to the first now as I go through the moves in all the variations the board gets updated accordingly.