How to analyze your own games?
I created the 10-week course to improve your chess. Every week you will receive one email with materials and exercises to do. You can sign up for the course at this link:
It's FREE and you will get a small gift for the start.
That article is the sample of the course.
Hello!
I hope you are following hints and exercises from lesson 1. about the tactics. Today it is time for the 2nd lesson. Probably the most important one. If you understand, learn and practice that process, you can improve your chess on and on.
Why is that important to analyze your games?
You can ...
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learn about your own mistakes and avoid them in the next games
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significantly improve your opening repertoire because those are your games and always your openings
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figure out what are your weaknesses and work more on them, as well identify your strengths and make them even stronger
How to do that?
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Pick the game that you want to analyze, download raw PGN (no comments), go to any analysis board, and paste it there. Do not check the engine report!
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Go through it without any engine's help (you can only use opening explorer to find a better way of playing at the beginning). In important moments make some comments and put some lines - do not hesitate to use chess annotation. In the end, write down your conclusions. Keep that version.
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Go back to the start and go through the game again, this time with the engine's help. Check every move and every comment that you made with the engine variations and its evaluation. If something was wrong, correct it (keep your comment, just mention what does the engine thinks).
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Make a summary, what did you do good and what was wrong. Try to think about why did you make those mistakes and how to improve them in the future.
Common mistakes (do not do them):
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checking report or engine analysis before you do it on your own
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not writing down lines and comments, easy to forget about them when you are checking it with the engine
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some people are using mainly word description, some are putting a lot of lines. They are both important!
One picture is worth a thousand words. So I made a video that I am presenting how to do that on my game's example.
In the upcoming week, please comment on some of your games using that method (2-3 would be nice). Make it a habit for the future!
greetings,
Mat
P.S. Analyze one of your games using the method I have described, and later send me the PGN. I will check it and give you feedback.
P.P.S. Do not forget about the daily tactics routine.
