Computer Free Analysis #1

Hi all,

After a long time in blogging and chess limbo, I am back with the first of a possible new series.

Because work has been a bit demanding, I have put chess in the back of my mind during the last few months. Of course, I played a lot, but not with the right mindset to improve: I  played too many games, one after another, and only a few tactics. Worst of all, if I did analyze one of my games, I only spent a few seconds going through the chess.com report. That's it.

To end this bad trend, I wanted to pick up a new habit.

Every week, I plan to take one of my rapid games (which is my "serious" time control) and analyze it calmly, and entirely without a computer. Only after doing that will I compare my work to that of the computer. The idea is to post my game analysis, my guess of the eval in many key variations, and the "correct" analysis, plus a brief discussion of where I was the most wrong.

I do not claim to have invented this approach to game analysis, of course! It's a very commonly suggested learning technique. But it's also one that is hard to implement. It takes time, energy, and it's so tempting to click on the "report" button to skim through the "solution" instead of doing the exercise.

The point of this post is the same as the point of my blog in general. To help people who, like me, want to improve at online chess---in other words, people who do not necessarily wish to become great classical players, but still wish to become better at rapid or blitz. Hopefully, these few posts will motivate you to pick up the same habit (do not hesitate to send me some of your annotated game if you get inspired) or entertain you. At the very least, it will motivate me to keep doing these analyses, which I am sure will help me progress!

My main angle, as always, is that I am no master. Just a guy who was 1200 not that long ago, and still remembers what it feels like to begin at chess. I hope that sharing learning techniques will help, but also that showing how bad a 2000+ chess.com player can be will underline that anyone can do it.

With that in mind, I will not try to choose the best game or hide my bad first analysis. I will try to be as transparent as possible in my learning process.

Without further ado, let's move to the first analysis. A very short, sharp, and fun game I played on the train this very morning.

The game
As advertised, it's not a great game by any stretch of the imagination. It was fun, sharp, and full of mistake, which means I have much to learn from it! And as you will see, my first analysis was almost as wrong as the game was bad, but I think it was just as instructive!

To start, here is my analysis computer-free. All the eval (+1,-1, etc.) are my guesses. I wrote them down to compare to the analysis afterward. As you will see, I was quite wrong, quite a few times.

And now the version with the computer. I first launched the "report" at maximum depth and then did a bit of exploration on my own with the engine's help.

Takeaways

1) I missed some critical and easy tactics like Qxe5+, which showed that I didn't spend enough time on my analysis with no computer. I took roughly 30' to go through all the variations. I will force myself to do at least 45' for the next one. Granted, the position was quite sharp, but Qxe5 was a bit too obvious to miss.

2) I took a lot of time debating with myself 6. Bc4. and ended up being both right and wrong. Weirdly, I was right during the game and wrong in the analysis. My initial instinct was correct, but my analysis was wrong. But all this was great for memorization. I do not doubt that I will remember: a) to play this move and b) why I should play this move. In other words, this felt like the best possible way of working on an opening (although it was pretty time-consuming).

3) I won the game on tactics. But only because my opponent was worst than me. So it's back to the old tactical trainer for me! Clearly, I have some room to improve there!

4) Even though I loved the exercise of this double analysis, I felt I was pretty bad at it. Most of my estimated analyses were wrong, I missed some tactics, and the main conclusion on the opening ended up being wrong, which is great news in the end. Not only can I still improve at chess, but I can improve my way of learning chess! This is why I love this game so much; no matter your level, you can always feel like a beginner with so much to learn!

I hope you found this little post entertaining and perhaps even motivating! Again if you do, please do not hesitate to send me those analyses!

Until next time, happy learning!