How to Analyze 3 Check Games: Part 1

Some people were wondering why you can't analyze 3 Check games or variants in general on chess.com. I don't know why this is the case but I can show you how to import your games to lichess.org so you can analyze them there. It's very easy to do. My intention with this post is not to advertise lichess but to help others improve at 3 Check. If this post is against the rules then let me know.

Step 1: Create a lichess.org account

You can import games without an account but you won't get a computer analysis of your games. Creating an account on lichess is free and easy so there's really no reason not to do it. 

Step 2: Copy the game PGN

Select the game you want to analyze from your game archive. Once you've done that then click on the downward facing arrow to the right of your game.

A window will pop up. Right click on the text under the PGN box and select "copy".

Step 3: Go to lichess.org

On the top left of the home page you will see 5 tabs. Hover over the one that says "Tools" and select "Import game". 

You will then be brought to this page:

Paste your game PGN in the given box.

Step 4: Edit the game PGN (Very important!)

Chess.com and lichess PGNs are slightly different for 3 Check so you will need to make one small change to make the chess.com PGN compatible on lichess. Scroll in the game PGN box until you find where it says "[Variant "3-check"]". 

You will need to replace the "3" with "Three" like in the following image:

If you don't do this step then your game will be analyzed as if it were a standard chess game and the engine will give you completely wrong evaluations for a 3 Check game. 

After you have made this slight change to the game PGN click on the button that says "Request a computer analysis". You will see it go from red to green. Then click on "Import Game". That's it! You will then get a complete breakdown of your game and the engine will point out all of the mistakes that you and your opponent made. You will know if you did step 4 correctly if you see "Three-Check" written to the left of the board.

If you instead see "Standard" written there then you did something wrong.

In Part 2 I will show you the proper way to analyze a game so that you actually learn from your mistakes.