How to Properly Analyze Your Games

Analyzing a chess game is a great way to improve your skills. Being more critical of your choices and blunders will expose gaps in your knowledge, enhance your strengths, and shift your perspective of the game altogether. Every game you play is a chance to learn, no matter the outcome.

1. Check Out The Games Yourself First

• Before using an engine or some external aid, do your best to come up with your own evaluation of the game. This practice develops your analytical skills, and helps you build instincts without relying on the computer.

• Key moments: Look for significant turning points in the game in which the evaluation had a drastic shift (tactical & strategical mistakes, wasted chances).

• Reflect on your plan in a given position and think about what your opponent was aiming to achieve. Think about whether there were other moves you might have considered and whether you truly understood the position or were simply improvising as you played.

2. Use a Chess Engine for Validation

• Once you are done performing the initial evaluation, search for weaker moves and tactics with the help of chess engines. Stockfish and the analysis tool feature offered by Chess.com provide objective evaluations and most importantly different variations and scenarios of the game.

• Focus on the key moments: This means to not blindly follow the engine’s recommendations for every move. Instead, its better to use it for proposing the evaluation at critical positions that have previously been determined.

• Understanding the suggestions: Instead of just memorizing the engine’s moves without thinking, take the time to analyze them. Try to understand why the engine suggested a move and how it changes the position’s evaluation.

3. Evaluate the Opening

Understand how the first part went for you and whether you implemented your preparation. Think about the following things:

• Did you manage to get a good position out of the opening?

• Were there any moves you were unfamiliar with?

• How can you improve your opening knowledge?

• Did you grasp the plans and pawn structures typical for your selected opening?

4. Evaluate the Middlegame

The middlegame is where most of the decisions are made. Make sure to pay attention to the following:

• Plans: Did you have a clear plan, or were you just moving pieces around?

• Tactics: Were there missed combinations or threats?

• Piece activity: Were your pieces optimally placed? Did you improve your worst-placed piece?

• Pawn structure: Did you create weaknesses or exploit your opponent’s shortcomings?
• Look at the positions where you moved from the opening to the middlegame. Did you correctly evaluate when to launch an attack, defend, or prepare?

5. Evaluate the Endgame

Evaluating how you navigated the endgame is very important. Therefore, some of the key pointers include:

• Did you know the theoretical endgame principles for the position?

• Were there missed chances of achieving a winning position or holding a draw?

• Did you remember to effectively prioritize the mobility of the king and the advancement of the pawns?

• If relevant, how did you cope with the time pressure?
• For endgames, it’s essential to compare your play against established theoretical guidelines. For example, did you handle rook endgames efficiently, or were there better drawing or winning techniques?

6. Goals for Improvement

Based on your analysis, identify weak areas to work on. These could include:

• Learning a new opening or deepening your knowledge of an existing one.

• Practicing specific tactical motifs that you missed.

• Studying theoretical endgames relevant to your level.

• Improving your calculation skills and visualization.

7. Periodically Revisit Past Games

Revisiting your games weeks or months later can offer fresh insights. As your skills improve, you might notice new patterns or mistakes that were previously overlooked.