How to analyze your games

Chess

Review your own games to find what to fix.

What coaches agree on

  • Pick out one to three critical, turning-point positions from the game and give those your deepest analysis.
  • Look for the plan or idea behind the engine's suggested move — that is what actually carries over to your own games.
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  • Turn what you find into a concrete, plain-English lesson for future games, and keep a running log so patterns across your games become visible.

Common mistakes

  • Turning on the engine or clicking Game Review right away and accepting its verdict, instead of writing down your own candidate moves and evaluation first — once the engine hands you the answer, the mistake it reveals only looks obvious in hindsight.
  • Treating any move the engine prefers, or a modest evaluation swing, as proof of a real mistake — a natural, principled human move can trail the engine's favorite by only a fraction of a pawn, and the engine's own accuracy labels shift with depth settings.
How To Analyze Your Chess Games
Intermediate

How To Analyze Your Chess Games

Coach's take: Goes beyond 'trust the engine' — shows concretely where blind engine-following leads you astray.

3.5
How to Analyze Chess Games
Intermediate

How to Analyze Chess Games

Coach's take: Sound framework and good advice on skipping the engine at first -- wish the excerpt got further into the example.

3.3