123Chess_Game1

“Chess is the art of analysis.” – the late GM Mikhail Botvinnik
The question is, do you actually know how to analyze your games, identify your thought processes and mistakes, and truly learn from them?  The vast majority of recreational and sub-tournament-level players never do, which is why they plateau in their skill level and can’t improve.
“Every defeat is an opportunity to learn from our mistakes! Every victory is a confirmation of our hard work!” – Susan Polgar
With all this in mind, this post is the first in a series I’ll be doing as I journey with my friend Tom into more effectively analyzing (and thus learning from) our games. We discuss what we learn throughout the process on our 123 Chess YouTube channel, and would like to invite you to join us on this journey to improve your game with us! Below is a description of our custom “CHESS” analysis method (based on principles from chess masters), as well as my own complete analysis of our “Game 1” using this method. I hope this proves a helpful framework for you to know how to start to systematically learn from your games too! ~Luke

The CHESS Analysis Method (7-Steps)

CLOCK & CODE (Step 1)
HEAD & HAT (Steps 2 & 3)
ED & ANA (Steps 4 & 5)
SELECT & STUDY (Step 6)
SECURE KEY TAKEAWAYS (Step 7)

         CLOCK & CODE: 

1. CLOCK & CODE: During Gameplay - Create a CODE legend for you to write down and identify the critical moments of the game, including the moves that took the most time on your CLOCK.
   Tip 1: You can use numbers, letters, symbols, or anything else you can think of.
   Tip 2: This process works best if you play a live (non-correspondence) game with at least 10min on your clock.
   Examples:
   - When felt Disoriented
   - Confused
   - Comfortable
   - Uncomfortable
   - Stuck
   - When you overlooked something
   - When you had a positive "eureka" moment
   (The code legend I created for myself is “SCOUTE.”)
   S = I feel Stuck
   C = I feel Comfortable
   O = I Overlooked a position or tactic
   U = I feel Uncomfortable
   T = This was a Time consuming move
   E = Eureka! I discovered something good!
   
   HEAD & HAT:
2. HEAD: Immediately after the Game - Write down what went through your HEAD throughout the game such as what you were feeling, the reasons for your decisions, the plans you had, and calculations you performed.
   Tip 1: Expound on your In-game CODE
   Tip 2: Be specific
   (This PGN below include both of these steps 1 and 2 within the annotative comments.)
   
3. HAT: Immediately after the Game - After finishing the above, write down at least 3 key lessons you've learned from this game that you can add to your HAT of knowledge.
   Warning: No outside sources! Just your own thoughts and conclusions so far!
   (Here are mine.)
   1. I know very little about the Danish Gambit and the textbook ways to respond to it.
   2. Doubled pawns tends to be an overrated disadvantage in my mind. I find it difficult to decide if giving my opponent doubled pawns is good enough compensation for giving their Rook an open file. Conversely, I tend to feel quite uncomfortable when my opponent has an option of doubling my pawns, at the expense of my own development and plan sometimes.
   3. It’s important not to allow concerns about defending against your opponent’s attack plans prevent you from establishing yours and keeping up in development. I was so caught up in trying to prevent Tom’s attack toward my Kingside, that by move 10 I was still 2 moves behind in development.
   4. A hanging Knight can be a dangerous failure. By leaving my Knight hanging on c5 for 4 moves, I allowed my opponent to harass it with his pawn, rendering it useless for a solid portion of the game. This gave him a major positional advantage.
   5. Pawn structure and calculation is crucial during the endgame. If I had more carefully calculated my moves after move 40 when I had the opposition, I would have probably had a solid chance at winning.
   
   ED & ANA:
   
4. ED: Immediately after the Game - EDUCATE on the critical moments of the game. These include any major changes that took place.
   Internal critical moment examples:
   - Ran out of known moves
   - Moves that surprised you
   - Change in plans
   - Overlooked a situation
   - When you found yourself "lost" or stuck
   External critical moment examples:
   - Phase Transition
   - Draw-ish Endgame --> Lost one
   - Massive trade of pieces
   - Major pawn configuration change
   - Quiet game into Tactical storm
   (Here are what I chose.)
   7. Be3 The first moment when I felt particularly uncomfortable and not sure if I should Bxe3, Bb6, or disregard it altogether. I chose 7…Bb6, and I can’t help but wonder if that created increasing weakness for me throughout the game as the pressure mounted against my Kingside and my opponent maintained a notable tempo advantage.
   10…Ne5 Because his response with Nxe5 was kind of a given, this is the move that opened the game and the f file for his Rook. I feel like this move was the beginning my midgame disadvantage.
   16. Bc4 This appears to be a key forcing move. If I had done 16…Bxc4, then 17. Nxc4 Qd2 putting me on the offense with a very active Queen and Knight, and possibly allowing me to win the e4 pawn and stack up my rooks on the d file.
   17. Bxe6 If I had taken with my pawn instead of my queen, I would have automatically unlocked my Rook, potentially further equalizing the position, and giving me more forcing opportunities with his King vulnerable and in the corner.
   20. b4 This was the beginning of the breaking down of my defenses. Not making way for my Knight on a previous move was perhaps one of my biggest blunders during this game.
   28…Nb8 This allowed his pawns to take control of my Queenside and break through my defenses. If he didn’t end up trading Queens a couple moves later, I think he could have better capitalized on this mistake of mine, smashed through my defenses and gotten an earlier win.
   31. Qxd7 Nxd7 The largest turning point of the game in my favor. The removal of our Queens put me back in the game with potential to further equalize the position.
   40. Nxe4 Kxe4 The beginning of the King pawns endgame. I had the opposition with my King here but I didn’t know what to do with it.
   45…fxe4+ The moment when I gave the game away. Possibly my most obvious blunder of the game.
   
   This video below is a review based on our completion of steps 1-4.
   
   
   
5. ANA: After the Game - Pick at least 2 or 3 of the critical moments you identified above, and now ANALYZE them. Warning: Before you analyze, run your moments by an equal or higher level player!
   (After running my ideas for which critical moments to choose by Tom as well as by higher level players in a chess.com online forum, I ended up choosing 10...Ne5 but adjusting the other 2 choices, eventually landing on the below 3 moves.)
   10...Ne5
   14...Nd7
   38...Kd5
   
   This PGN below include my finalized analyses for these 3 critical moments within the annotative comments.
   
   
   SELECT & STUDY:
   
6. SELECT & STUDY: After the Game - SELECT an opening theory, positional pattern, or tactical element to STUDY it by learning from an expert sources.
   Examples of types of sources:
   - Reading instructional Books
   - Watching instructional Videos
   - Reading relevant Articles
   - Looking up relevant Master Games
   - Submitting your game online for a Game Review
   Warning: Finish this step and THEN check your findings against a chess engine!
   (Below is what I did for this step.)
   1. I watched a few EndGame YouTube videos about Opposition, Triangulation, King+Pawn vs. King Endgames, and King+Queen vs. King+Pawn Endgames.
   2. I watched a few Opening Youtube videos about The Danish Gambit and the popular responses to it.
   3. I closely examined the review of my game that a higher level player provided me in an online forum.
   4. I double-checked my game against a chess engine to make sure I caught all my blunders and mistakes.
   5. I started to do some Endgame Drill training on Chess.com.
   6. Tom and I both memorized the same GM game of Miguel Cordoba vs. Jaan Eslon (1984), because it was one of the games in the chess.com GM database most similar to our opening in this game. Below is this game.
   
   
   
   SECURE KEY TAKEAWAYS:
   
7. SECURE KEY TAKEAWAYS: Conclusion - SECURE and write down any final KEY TAKEAWAYS that are principles you can take into your future chess games, based on what you have learned from your analysis of this one. Write down at least 2 or 3.
   (Below is what I did for this step.)
   1. OPENING THEORY: Responding to the Danish Gambit - After watching a few Opening Youtube videos about The Danish Gambit and the popular responses to it, taking note of comments and recommendations from higher level players, and looking at the GM stats on chess.com regarding options for Black in response to it (screenshot below), I came to conclude the following:
   --> Whether you're responding to the Scotch Game or the Center Game, the natural ...exd4 is by far the most popular and one of the most solid responses to either.
   --> After playing ...exd4 in response to the Scotch Game or the Center Game, one of the safest and most popular moves in response to the Goring Gambit (after accepting the Scotch Game) or the Danish Gambit (after accepting the Center Game) for Black is ...d5. This prevents the more dynamic rapid-White-development lines of play initiated by accepting the gambit, and presents more solid options to equalize the position when you're not familiar with how to handle (or simply want to avoid) the aggressive accepted lines of play.
   
   2. GAME PHASE TRANSITION: Transitioning to an Endgame mindset - If, around move 14 I had more closely assessed the pawn structure, pieces, and piece placement on the board, I would have seen that I arguably had a much more preferable position. And if I focused more on what I could do to force a productive exchange or two, it could have simplified things to increase my chances of winning as we approached the endgame.
   3. ENDGAME PRINCIPLES: Premature Pawn Advances - Pawns are the only pieces that can't move backwards. To advance them prematurely without a solid reason for doing so (e.g. creating a passed pawn, promoting a pawn or threatening to promote, creating a zugzwang situation for your opponent, preventing movement of an opponent's piece to a key square) simply burns up your tempos and weakens your position. My moves 36...h5, 41...c6, 42...a6 were each examples of this kind of premature, unfounded pawn advance.
   4. ENDGAME PRINCIPLES: Need for systematic Endgame learning - This game has demonstrated that I have a lot of room for improvement in my assessment of Endgame positions (both in calculation accuracy and knowledge of fundamental principles and when/how to apply them). Though I've looked at some basic Endgame YouTube videos and started doing some chess.com Endgame Drills, I think I would benefit from a more systematic approach. So I've decided to commit to start reading through the book Silman's Complete Endgame Course, going forward. And on this note, I think the 2 prime examples from this game that I’d like to use as organic deeper Endgame training opportunities is if I could play Tom again at some point starting after move 38 and starting after move 40.
   
   Finally, this video below is based on our completion of steps 5-7.