Variations and annotations
The engine shows its lines — but real understanding comes from trying your own. Régence keeps everything played on the board in a variation tree, with comments and notes.
Creating a variation
Nothing to activate: playing a different move from any position creates a variation. The move list shows it indented, and a choice bar appears at branching points to switch between continuations.
A few gestures to organize the tree, all in the Game menu:
| Action | Menu | Shortcut |
|---|---|---|
| Promote the variation to main line | Promote to main line | Cmd + ↑ |
| Move the variation up one rank | Promote the variation | Cmd + Shift + ↑ |
| Delete the move (and what follows) | Delete the move | ⌫ |
| Delete the whole variation | Delete the variation | Shift + ⌫ |
Cmd + Z undoes any tree operation — deleting a variation is never irreversible.
Commenting a move
Game > Edit comment… (Cmd + E) attaches a comment to the current move. Comments live in the game: they’re exported with the PGN, and preserved on import — those of an imported Lichess study arrive intact.
Arrows and colored squares
To show an idea on the board — a plan, a weak square, a threat — Régence draws arrows and colors squares, right from a right-click, just like on Lichess or chess.com:
- Right-click and drag from one square to another draws an arrow.
- Right-click on a square (without dragging) places a circle around it.
- Repeating the exact same gesture erases that arrow or circle — it’s a toggle.
- Left-click on the board clears all annotations for the position.
Pick the color by holding a key during the right-click:
| Key | Color |
|---|---|
| (none) | red |
Shift | green |
Option | blue |
Control | yellow |
Two details that matter for teaching. First, annotations are attached to the position, not to the board: they follow the move in the tree and reappear each time you return to it — so you can mark up a whole game, move by move. Second, they’re exported with the PGN (standard %cal for arrows, %csl for squares): an annotated game keeps its arrows on Lichess, chess.com or any other tool — and those from an imported PGN arrive intact.
Arrows and colored squares map out a plan directly on the position.
Position notes
Below the move list, the Notes panel takes free-form remarks about the displayed position — “I panicked here”, “review this rook plan”. The difference with comments: notes are a personal notebook per position, meant for review, while comments are part of the game and travel with it.