Types of Games and Improving your chess
If you run chess.com game review on your latest games, you will see Chess.com attributing a "GAME SHAPE" with a little comment as well
with the Insights function, you can take a look at the accuracy ( 100% being the best , 0% of the worst) which looks like this
Obviously "smooth" and " balanced" games get higher accuracy, while "Intense" and "Wild" see the accuracy drop.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
I would narrow down the types of games into 4 CATEGORIES and depending if your losses are in one type, this should help study the area where you could get the most from your time studying chess.
For instance, if you lose quite a bit of "smooth" games, you may want to study positional games from Carlsen, Karpov, Capablanca and Rubinstein.
If the accuracy drops lower in "wild" games, maybe going over Tal or Mamyedarov games may help.
CATEGORY I : The games where one side gradually TAKES OVER. The game is balanced until a point where one side outplays the other and there is NO TURNING BACK
The graph looks like this
Black did not nothing wrong in the opening but Hikaru took over in early middlegame. Black should study King's Indian Attack ideas for Black !
If you want to be on the side gradually "outplaying " the opponent, I would recommend Magnus Carlsen games. He is so strong in increasing pressure and grinding a win.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
CATEGORY II : REVERSAL. This is where the game could go one way without being totally won. But the side defending is RESILIENT, and is ABLE to TURN THE GAME AROUND. (Usually scoring a win but if you save a dead lost game into a draw, this would qualify)
The Graph looks like this
you can see Bacrot with White getting his advantage up to +2.88 which is significant. Yet @hikaru defends and the game reaches 0.0 and right away Bacrot blunders and Black wins quickly after that.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
CATEGORY III: the WILD , INTENSE, TOPSY TURVY kind of games, sometimes CHAOS. These are the figthing games where tactics, counter-attack and a fierce battle takes place. Typically humans have trouble to find the path leading to engines suggesting many "turning points".
Here I am featuring my own game against an INTERNATIONAL MASTER. A hard fought battle where the pendulum (engine eval) favored white, then Black, and finally White again. Average accuracy 66 between both players....
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
and 4th type is UNCHANGED from EQUALITY. The game doesnt really tip towards one side. This could be a high accuracy game and/or a simplified position. For instance if you reach early on an endgame with opposite color bishops, both players may be playing accurate move with evaluation stuck at 0.0; I think chess.com calls this "balanced".
Here's an engine vs engine game where the game logically ends with a draw. no noticeable mistake done by either side.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
I hope sharing my perspective can be useful and good luck studying chess.
feel free to tell me which type of games you enjoy to work on and which type of game do you need to improve on based on your own game history. is the game shape the same ??
