The game preview

A table of games gives you names, dates and results — never enough to recognize a game. The preview panel, to the right of the table, fills that gap: select a row, and the game shows itself.

The final position

The panel opens on the board at the final position, last move highlighted. It’s the best identifier there is: a back-rank mate, a rook endgame, a position still crowded with pieces are recognizable at a glance, where “1-0, 31 moves” says nothing at all.

It isn’t a picture: it’s the application’s real board, with your piece set and your board theme, marquetry included. Under the board, a caption states what you’re looking at — Final position — 31 moves, in moves rather than half-moves.

The ⇅ button, next to the caption, flips the board: you often follow a game from the point of view of the player you’re watching, not White’s. The choice carries over from one selection to the next.

What the analysis found

If the game has been analyzed, a block appears under the board. Every number comes from the analysis already done: the panel cannot tell a different story from the badges in the Analysis column right beside it.

Accuracy for both sides, first — White and Black, as percentages. A whole game summed up in two numbers; how to read them is covered in Reading the classification.

The evaluation curve next, in miniature: the same trace as the graph in the analysis panel, move after move, with its midline. A curve that plunges in one step is a game that turned on a single move; a sawtooth curve is two players handing each other their mistakes.

The move breakdown last, category by category:

One row per category actually present, with each side’s count — a summary doesn’t read well among zeros. It’s the same vocabulary as the badges in the move list, detailed here.

On an online game browsed without being saved yet, the full breakdown isn’t always available: the panel then falls back to the essentials — accuracy, and the count of remarkable moves.

Folding it away

The toggle at the far right of the toolbar hides or shows the preview. On a narrow screen the table’s columns are sometimes worth more than the board; the choice is remembered from one session to the next.