Writing Out Variations

Does anyone have a good method for wrtining out chess variations when doing analysis?

I'm going through some calculation books that want me to write out my variations. Good idea. But especially in complicated positions, I end up with a page full of chickenscratch that I cannot follow when I am done.

Any ideas to help?

When I go through an analysis, there are countless variations for every move. How to study without losing the thread? Even while I play the annotated game over the board,it is difficult to return to the previous position unless a diagram is provided for that point where the variation starts. I end up playing again from the start. I would welcome senior ranked players,how they overcome this problem!

Have you tried using a program that shows the variations in a tree view...  I sometimes use Babaschess for exactly this.

I am trying to do this by hand so I am away from a computer, but thank you for your suggestion.

I've done lots of Stoyko exercises.  I recommend using graph paper.

The hardest part is keeping track of different variations several ply deep.  I found that by first listing out all candidate moves, and initial candidate replies, you cut down on the clumsiness in your notes by having to go back and "fix" an earlier line.  You'll get much better as you do them, so stick with it.  Check out my blog link in my profile and you can see some examples of my notes (see 'About Stoyko Exercises').

Yeah, I am kinda doing Stoyko exercises. I like your idea of graph paper and I really like your blog. Consider it bookmarked! :)

Good morning gentlemen! Stoyko? Can any body please explain what it is?

Eeeesshhh... I totally misread your post Eric!  Sorry about that!

Type in a Word document and look back at the diagram if you need to.  I know you said be away from the computer but this is just typing, no engine stuff.  I avoid writing when I can help it myself. 

That's what I have been doing and I'm indenting each branch to try and make it easier to tell that I'm in a sub-variation. Any variations at the same move # have the same indention. Of course, I'm still finishing up my first Stokyo exercise, so I may change it in the future. I really need to figure a way to streamline

Using different colours might help. There used to be pens that could write in red, green, blue and black. Might be useful for this.

XMind

Here's a small section of an opening I've been studying as an example.  I use Lucas Chess to quickly copy an image of the positions to the clipboard and just paste it into a cell in XMind.

Pen and paper my friend...sometimes the old ways are the best.