American GM Hikaru Nakamura criticized the Evaluation Bar system in chess on stream on Twitch. Nakamura explains that people do not understand the game the way a computer does, and calls the Evaluation Bar one of the worst tools in chess.

Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura

American GM

“Computers are 3500. A computer looks at Magnus like: ‘He’s just a 2,800 guy. He’s a terrible chess player. He doesn’t understand anything about the game’. People really don’t understand how bad humans are compared to computers.

I think the evaluation bar is one of the worst things in chess. Because it gives off the wrong impression.

There can be a position where it says ‘+1’. And then a player blunders, and people go: ‘Oh my god, this guy is terrible! How could he blunder in this position? It’s minus one!’.

But in reality, that’s only for a computer that’s 3500…”

The Evaluation Bar is a visual indicator based on real-time analysis from a chess engine. It shows which player has the advantage, displaying the engine evaluation in units of pawns. A positive advantage on the bar indicates an advantage for White, and a negative advantage for Black. The Evaluation Bar is used on analysis boards on Chess.com and Lichess.org, in ChessBase software, and on tournament broadcasts.

Credit: Yoav Nisenbaum / FIDE