Game Review By SPK1729 😉
Blog Contents
| Intro | |||
| Evaluation Graph | Evaluation Bar | ||
| Brilliant | |||
| Great | Best | Excellent | Good |
| Book | Inaccuracy | Mistake | Miss |
| Blunder | |||
| Opening | Middlegame | Endgame | |||
| Outro | |||
Intro
Hey guys!
Hope you're doing great!, For this special blog,
I reached out to a couple of coaches and a bunch of fellow bloggers to share their thoughts on various Game Review terms.
They responded generously, and I’ve included their thoughts across each subtopic. And each subtopic comes with two short paragraphs and an image:
— The first paragraph explains their thoughts and what I understood from them.
— The second is my own definition of the game review term.
If you’re looking to deepen your understanding of chess theory, this post will help you learn from the engine’s(let's call it Chessie) perspective.
Evaluation Graph
Without any verbal explanation that links the engine assessment to the situation on the board, the eval graph is hardly more than a string of hieroglyphs.
- @nova-stone
As my club mate Nova said it, the eval graph is a visual summary of your moves. When interpreted properly, it helps identify and correct your mistakes.
Chessie(the engine) generates the evaluation graph and and evaluation bar based on the moves you make during the game. If your move is Brilliant, Great, Best, Excellent, Good, or Book, the graph rises. If your move is an Inaccuracy, Mistake, Miss, or Blunder, the graph dips and these moves are marked with a colored dot.
Evaluation Bar
That damn number that makes you feel like the dumbest person on earth when it falls, even if it's just a little or irrelevant. It's the translation, objectively, of Stockfish watching our moves, laughing at our faces, and constantly judging us. That said, I love it!
— @VOB96
As my club owner puts it, the eval bar is Stockfish’s way of roasting us. It may make us feel dumb or brilliant, but in the end, it helps us see where we went wrong. And that's why she loves it.
At the start of the game, both White and Black each hold 50% of the bar, reflecting an equal position. As moves are played, Chessie (the engine) evaluates them and adjusts the bar. If a move gives White the advantage then the white portion of the bar increases. If a move benefits Black then the black portion grows. This bar gives an instant visual cue of who is ahead at any given moment or move in the game.
Brilliant
The ‘Brilliant’ move tag is a fascinating blend of precise calculation and the engine’s unique interpretation of creativity.
- @TejasKesavamurthy
Yes mate, it really is fascinating and that precise calculation often leads to sacrificing material and eventually winning the game.
Chessie assigns you a Brilliant move when you sacrifice a piece in your game, and that unexpected sacrifice either helps you win or leads to a clearly better position.
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Great
A great move, while defending, is the one that's chosen correctly, even if it's difficult to spot, and is often the only one that works to defend a difficult position; while attacking, a great move is the best move to continue an attack while maintaining the initiative (the tactical threat or positional advantage).
- @DocSimooo
Yeah mate, a Great Move is the optimal choice that either strengthens your attacking chances or defends a tough position without slipping further.
A Great Move is either the best possible move in your position or one of Chessie’s top recommendations that significantly improves or maintains your advantage. It reflects strong strategic or tactical understanding, and it is often given by capitalizing on the opponent’s mistake, but unlike a Brilliant Move, it doesn’t involve a sacrifice or a surprising twist.
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Best
I think the best move in a game is subjective, because even if a game has standout moves such as greats or brilliancies, there could me multiple or none of course of those moves, therefore making it so it's especially hard to design a fair system to judge the best one in any position.
- @RikLikesTacos
Yeah mate, the best move in a position can often be one of several. And from what I understand, Chess.com’s system applies solid chess principles like strategic balance and tactical awareness when assigning those move recommendations.
A Best Move is the top choice recommended by Chessie for your game position. It’s the most accurate move available and offering the greatest possible advantage or preserving equality under pressure. It reflects your perfect play based on the engine’s evaluation.
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Excellent
An "excellent move" in chess is a strong move that is very close to the "best" or "optimal" move, but not necessarily the absolute best.
— @AaravRoy_25
My club mate said it accurately and I think he might have either googled it when I asked for his thoughts or genuinely understood this term and explained it clearly.
An Excellent Move is a strong, high-quality move that keeps your position solid or improves it slightly. While it might not be the absolute best move, it’s still very close and shows your good understanding of the position in your game.
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Good
I’d say a good move is nice and solid, like not flashy or brilliant but also not nearly the worst move on the board, yet still not quite the best either, just somewhere in between.
— @nbrasington
Yeah mate, it’s somewhere "in between" and a good move usually means your position stays solid without inviting any major attacks.
A Good Move is a decent, sensible choice that keeps your game on track. It may not be Chessie’s top-recommended move, but it supports your position well and shows a solid understanding without causing any serious problems.
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Book
Sure, checking the book is a great way to see how long your "chess conversation" followed known opening paths. Once you leave book, it's a great opportunity to better understand and compare the "book" move with the move played in the game. Was there a critical difference in the resulting position, or did you find another way to reach a playable middlegame?
— @Fischwitsch
As my online coach Dane explained, if you follow book moves correctly, you can give tough competition in middlegame for your opponent.
A Book Move is a move that comes from well-established opening theory. These are standard moves commonly found in chess opening books or databases and are considered optimal during the early phase of the game. Chessie labels a move as "Book" when your game follows known theoretical lines instead of being evaluated by the engine.
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Inaccuracy
When I see an inaccuracy in my game, I sometimes feel like I’m not worthy, but the best part is, we get to see what the best move was, thanks to the engine.
— @SPK1729
To avoid inaccuracies, you should always have a clear plan in your game, whether it's targeting a specific piece or square to attack or defend. Having a plan keeps your play purposeful, and following basic game principles also helps reduce such inaccuracies.
This is a move that isn’t a blunder or mistake, but it’s not the most effective choice either. It slightly reduces your advantage or misses a stronger continuation. The game is still fine, but you could’ve done better and Chessie will gently remind you that there was a smarter way forward.
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Mistake
Mistakes do happen a lot, even from GrandMasters but the very important lesson is to never ever repeat those mistakes again. Learn from mistakes and apply it in your games.
- @KasiDChess
As my clubmate said, we have to learn from our mistakes and the key is not repeating them in your future games. That’s where daily puzzle practice really helps you to avoid the mistakes.
When Chessie flags a move as a Mistake, it means you played something that significantly worsens your position and usually because you missed a stronger alternative that would’ve kept your game solid or improved it. It’s not a blunder that loses outright, but it hands your opponent a noticeable edge.
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Miss
These ones are my favourite moves to check after I run the analysis. It is good to show human limitations to find mate in 12. I usually have hard discussions with the computer screen, especially when the move made is easily winning.
- @PokeGirl93
As she said, humans are limited to certain moves, but we can definitely improve beyond that by learning tactics and understanding different strategies. The more we train and learn, the more those "impossible" engine moves start to make sense.
A Miss is a move that overlooks a clearly better option. While it doesn’t immediately damage your position, it’s a missed opportunity to gain a significant advantage or play the best move in the position.
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Blunder
A blunder?? I wonder!? Or is my opponent more brilliant than I !!
- @KevinSmithIdiot
As my club coordinator said, blunders can leave you wondering at higher ratings, not just what went wrong, but whether your opponent was simply brilliant.
A blunder is a very bad move that results in a serious loss of material (like losing your queen) or a completely ruined position. It often turns a winning or equal game into a losing one. Blunders are usually caused by a lack of attention, poor calculation, or misjudgment or may be the part of trap.
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Opening
The opening is the preparation where you lay down the foundations before the building blocks are placed.
- @Charlie_Harold
As Charlie said, the opening is the foundation of your entire game. If you follow book moves well, your middlegame might unfold more favorably.
After the opening, Chessie assigns labels like Best, Brilliant, Good, Inaccuracy, Mistake, or Blunder to your opening moves. It calculates the average of those move points and tells you whether you played a strong opening or left the book early.
Try this puzzle to find out which type of move you played.
Middlegame
Mittelspiel is like the middle of life: you are no longer the same person you were at the beginning, but you still don't know who you will become at the end; everything here depends on the choice - accurate, courageous, and timely.
- @Anna_chess11
As this little sister said, the middlegame is like life’s messy middle and what you do here, with clarity and courage, decides whether your opening dreams will survive into a winning end.
The middlegame begins once both players have developed their pieces and usually ends when major material trades lead into the endgame. In this phase, Chessie evaluates your decisions and tactics using labels like Best, Brilliant, Good, Inaccuracy, Mistake, or Blunder. It then averages those move points to tell you how well you navigated the complexities of the middlegame.
Try this puzzle to find out which type of move you played.
Endgame
The endgame is not a place for fantasy. The winner here is not the one who can attack beautifully, but the one who can see the future. What matters here is not initiative, but tempo; not attack, but opposition; not style, but precision. Every square on the chessboard matters. One wrong move - and the whole game is lost. In the endgame, a pawn is not just a weakness or an extra piece. It is a chance. It is a threat. It is a future queen. And the one who understands the geometry of the chessboard – wins.
- @Alina_Bakhtina_24
As this big sister said, the endgame isn’t about flair; it’s about focus, where every tempo and square can crown a pawn or crush a dream.
The endgame starts when most of the major and minor pieces are off the board and kings become active. In this phase, Chessie assigns move points based on classifications like Best, Brilliant, Good, Inaccuracy, Mistake, or Blunder. By averaging these move points, it shows how accurately you converted your position or missed your chances.
Try this puzzle to find out which type of move you played.
Outro
As I reached out to @Squirtle for his thoughts on the “Best” move term, he responded a bit late, so I asked @RikLikesTacos instead and included his response earlier in the blog. Squirtle, however, shared his overall opinion on the Game Review system.
He mentioned that it’s great because it clearly shows how good or bad a move is in a specific position using visual cues and symbols. I completely agree with his view and also even someone who knows nothing about chess can begin to understand basic theory just by reviewing their own games. It’s a solid first step in any chess journey.
Huge thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts and brought this blog to life!
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