The Improving Annotator: From Beginner to Master

The Improving Annotator: From Beginner to Master is Dan Heisman’s chess book on analysing and annotating your own games, with a practical focus on how self-review can reveal recurring thinking errors and lead to better decisions at the board.

Rather than treating notation as a dry exercise, Heisman uses games drawn from four decades of tournament play to show how to move from basic commentary to a more mature way of thinking about a position. He explains not only how to annotate moves, but also why a particular method is useful.

What the book covers

The central theme is independent analysis of your own games. Heisman shows how to return to a finished game, assess your choices and identify which decisions came from a sound plan and which came from flawed thinking. That process helps you improve specific variations, but it also strengthens your overall understanding of chess.

This is an expanded and revised edition, with newer games and additional commentary that shed fresh light on the author’s earlier analysis. It also includes practical discussion of chess engines, setting out both the benefits and the pitfalls of relying on computer analysis, and showing how to use it without switching off your own judgement.

Why it belongs on your shelf

This book is a strong choice for players who want to learn from their own games rather than just play through them. It is especially useful for coaches, training work and ambitious amateurs who want to understand their decisions more clearly instead of simply checking an engine’s verdict.

Heisman also uses his own development as a player and analyst to illustrate the method, so the reader gets a concrete picture of how chess thinking changes with experience. If you are interested in more of his work, you may also like The Improving Chess Thinker.

Key details

• Product type: chess book
• Author: Dan Heisman
• Subject: self-analysis and annotation of chess games
• Edition: expanded and revised edition
• Content: includes newer games and additional commentary
• Approach: explains how to comment on moves and why the method is useful
• Computer analysis: discusses the benefits and pitfalls of using chess engines