Help Me Learn how to analyze my Games

(BTW, I am playing with the black pieces, and I did use the engine to analyze)

I suck at chess, which is fine. I suck at a lot of things. But I do put some effort to improve, and I'm not seeing much improvement, which is annoying.

They always tell me to analyze my games, which I do, but am I doing it right? 

I took the time to annotate a recent game with my thought process. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong and what I should do instead when I analyze games is much appreciated. 

Really not looking to get to a 2000 rating here. Just want to suck less, along the lines of "break damn 1000 in rapid already, get to 1100 in a few months" .

took me years to break 1000 you should be fine where you are. Want to play the game is enough.

Generally when I do a surface analysis I check all mistakes and blunders and WHY I made them, and I also look for noticeable changes on the eval of the game report (lichess also has this but doesn't have accuracy)

But ninja, you’re young. I don’t have that many years left!

Why this game in particular?

You have lots of games. I couldn't find this one and you decided not to share a link.

If you wonder why I was curious, it's because I wanted to look at time control (15+10 is in pgn) and time on individual moves/time trouble issues. I can't do that without the information.

So, without that...

Not much thought (annotation) was given for several moves. Capturing your entire thought process can be helpful for others to identify an areas for improvement.

Some examples,

• "book" What book? A good "book" move or a lessor recommendation?
• "Open path for bishop" What's the planned path? Were there any other options you considered?
• 8...Na5 preferred by engine What did the engine say? Was it the line you provided after? And this brings up an issue...

White's pressure on f7 is something you should constantly consider Bxb7+ is a very forcing move and Nxf7 threatens the Queen. You might be considering things during the game that you can't remember (to the finest detail) later. If it's a daily game, you have plenty of time to do this...rapid, maybe not during the game (the biggest downside to live vs daily) but you can usually remember a lot right after the game.

Also, your analysis isn't the engine's analysis. Do your own first and then you can try using an engine to compare. But beware of weak online engines and blindly believing everything they say...unless you just want an 1100 rapid rating in 2 months and plan on playing bullet chess. In that case, I'm no help.

Thanks for the response!

I chose this game because it was my most recent game. I played it this 

it was a 15|10 game. I don’t play anything faster because I’m slooowwww.

what I meant by book is just the “book” annotation the engine gives here to certain opening moves. I don’t know how good or bad the book is. I just use their definition.

white’s pressure on f7. I think I was aware of that, to the best of my abilities, because I’ve been burned by it many times. But do you think I was burned by it in this game? Isn’t a rook for a bishop and a knight something to my advantage?

I could try to do my own analysis without the engine first. Though I’ll just notice the obvious blunders and miss more subtle stuff. I suppose I’ll get better as I do it more often. And I don’t believe everything the engine says by the way. I do try to understand why it thinks the best move is best…if I don’t get it, it will probably not register with me.

And I’ll never play bullet chess! I don’t get the appeal of those super fast games at all. I like to take my time in everything. I often lose on time out on 15|10 and 30.  I even timed out in one 60 minutes game I played! 

I try to play one game per day. I can annotate tomorrow’s game more thoroughly…

Might want to edit account stuff out...just saying.

Book- ok, engine's remarks...where are yours?

Pressure on f7- I just noticed you mentioned another line only. Checks, captures, threats to capture (pressure/tension) should be a major part of your analysis (during and after the game).

Rook for bishop and knight- What would you consider to be the advantage? Material, development, etc? How do you use it? Is it short/long term? Not questions I'm asking answers for, questions for you to consider in like situations.

Ok thanks sensei. I’ll work on an improved analysis for my game tomorrow.

Analysis of your game: I would say you did a great job analyzing. Most people put only a few notes in, and then ask for analysis. All those note on the moves definitely will help a stronger player tell you were you went wrong. They can tell you if you made the right move for the wrong reason, or if your thought process was right, but did not make the right moves.

My analysis of your game: The first thing I saw was on move 6. I would have played d5 instead of d6. D6 is not a bad move (and is quite playable in your position), but it does three things. The first is it supports your e5 pawn, the second thing is that it allows you to develop your light squared bishop (the first two are good things), and the third thing is it locks your dark squared bishop on the queen side of the board. This restricts your bishops movement, and can make it harder to coordinate your pieces.  Playing d5 would do a few things. The first is that it immediately challenges your opponent for the center, forces your opponent to take on d5 with his pawn (after you recapture with the knight your opponent would be forced to either allow your knight to stay on d5 (a great square for it) or exchange it for the bishop (which gives you the bishop pair, and allows you to develop your queen (queen recaptures)), and it allows you to develop your bishop also.

On move 7: You made the right move to exchange bishops, and for you to start the exchange. If you had decided to let them start the exchange your doubled pawns would have weakened your position, and would not have done you much good. One of the main reason is because it is isolated, which can be easily attacked and possibly lost.  You mentioned that you were confused about when doubled pawns are good and bad. To answer that it all depends on the position, but the main thing with double pawns is that it creates a permanent pawn weakness. The double pawns can not protect each other, they get in the way of each other, and they often create another pawn island. In this position the double pawns are not that bad at the moment. The double pawns are in the center of the board, the board is congested so you won’t be able to easily attack the doubles pawns, the pawn on e4 is supported by the pawn on d3 (it is protected by another pawn), the doubled pawn is on e3 so it is controlling an important square in the center of the board, and the rook on f1 is on a semi open file which can be good. The down sides for your opponent is that he has two pawn islands, their king is a little more exposed (could be a problem if the game becomes more open than closed), and in the endgame the doubled pawn may become a liability if they are not able to trade off one of the pawns on the e file before then.

Move 8: Your question on why the computer recommended Na5 (9. Nxf7 Rxf7 10. Bxf7+ Kxf7) I believe is because forces white to exchange is knight, and bishop for you rook and pawn. This does a few things: first is that it gives you two minor pieces vs a rook which typically better for the person who had the two minor pieces. Second it gets rid of both of the pieces he has developed, and gives you two pieces developed. Third your bishop will be very useful when the position opens up (which will happen in the endgame for sure), and bishops are typically better than knights in the endgame when there are pawns on both sides of the board. Forth: White has double pawns so that will make it harder for them to use the one advantage they have in the position (more pawns).

Move 12: Technically you are still in the opening. The opening is usually not done until you have connected your rooks. Both your queen and your opponents queen are on the their starting squares. When it comes to creating plans you will want to look at the entire board, and look at all your advantage and disadvantages as well as your opponents. Then decided on your move. I see that you are a diamond member (which means you can use all the resources on the site including videos and leasons). There are study guides for beginner. They have ones for strategy, tactics, opening, and endgame. The strategy one can definitely help you find out what to do in the middle game. Going through the study guides, and using those to learn can help teach you what you need to get to the next level.

The reasoning behind computers recommendation of Be6 is that it does help defend against Nd5.

Move 15: The reasoning behind Be6 is two part. First part is what you are thinking which is to prevent Nd5. If they play Nd5 then you can take exchange your knight for their knight and a pawn. The second is that your bishop will not be doing much sitting on h5. It will be much more useful on e6 where it can go to either side of the board. Controls more space, and helps control the center. It would also take another turn to get to the g8 a2 diagonal, and the bishop sitting on f7 is not as good as e6 because it can’t jump into attack the king side without moving again.

Move 16: Bf7 is much better not just for the reason of Nd5, but the bishop on g6 is controlling nothing. The pawns on e4 and d6 prevent your bishop from controlling space, and in order for you to use your bishop you will have to move it to Bf7 then to the square that you want it on. Basically it will cause you to waste a move to use your bishop.

Move 18: I believe the reason for Nh7 is to protect against a pawn storm. If the white plays g5 then you can take with take with the knight instead of taking with the pawn, and then you have a double isolated pawn in front of your king. This can be bad for king safety. Your move of Rf8 is not bad, and you are trying to bring another piece to the defense of your king so that is a good idea.

Move 19: Nh7 would have been better to protect your rook, and that way you can take possibly counter attack. You had a good though process for move 19. Ideally when you are being attacked you want to counter attack. Ideally you want to counter attack the center, and if not then on the opposite side of the board.

Move 21: Your thought process behind the move was good. It was not the best move because your queen is really needed in this situation to protect your king, and assist with trading off pieces, but the idea behind Qa2 and taking some pawns can win you games. Doing this can give you a big advantage in the endgame especially when you can create protected passed pawns. The best move is to play Qd7 to force some trades in the center. White would be forced to play Nd5. Then you play Nexd5 and after exd5 you play Nh7, and you can hold the position, and start initiating trades to relieve the pressure on your king.

Move 32: The computer says you have perpetual check, but that is not easy to see in this position so don’t beat yourself up over missing it.

Here is the link to the study guides: https://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory

Hope this helps

Wow AlphaTeam, I really appreciate this thorough analysis. I’m gonna go carefully through it!

I’ve taken quite a few lessons on the website in the past few months. It helps, but I suspect most of it just evaporates from lack of immediate use and practice…

OK here's my analysis for today's game. I did not use the engine yet. I ended up winning, but I made tons of mistakes and should have lost it. 

Link to the actual game:

https://www.chess.com/game/live/23393522113

Any pointers on what kind of things I should be thinking about to improve are appreciated. 

I would have preferred 8. Qxd2 to 8. Nbdxd2, as the queen's knight is better placed on c3. On d2, the knight is not doing as much here, and by capturing with the queen, rooks have obvious squares on either c1, d1, or e1.

9. Qb3 is an example of a one-move threat. One-move threats are easily parried, and there is a probably a better alternative in terms of 0-0.

10. d5 is ok, but not completely bad either.

15. e5 could have been prepared with Re1. 16. Qxc5 before Nxe5 is a thought.

You walked into the long diagonal skewer tactics around move 20.

The endgame is a complete mess. You were playing well in the opening, but the area of focus is tactics. Shots on the a1-h8 and a8-h1 diagonals are going to come up repeatedly in your games.

Thanks for the feedback!

I do tactics every day, but repeatedly miss them during games. Sometimes I notice them a second after I’ve made my move. Perhaps I should get used to explicitly checking for such tactics before moving. I’ll time out a bunch, but maybe with time it will get better.

You spent 5 seconds on move 7

In my honest opinion, you should be playing daily. 30 minute games maybe play to test after a few daily games. But you spent more time on previous moves. This is an issue for most online players these days. I get it, it's a game and games are meant to be fun. If you don't enjoy playing daily, I recommend you evaluate your reasons for it.

Back to the move...and I think it may have caused you some problems. You mentioned another position (similar) without a knight on f6. Was there a pawn on d6? You might see Qb3 in that sort of position because Black hasn't castled and White can avoid the fork with Qa4+. Once that happened to you, it's more about luck than anything else. But I didn't see you describe the difference of playing Nc3 in your position. After 7.Nc3 Nf6 8.O-O O-O what's not to like? 

You can go back to Black's move 6...Bb4+ and see if there were better moves.

Lastly, I don't have the book you're using. Another approach to playing c3 is to play d3 and later d4 (if things go that route). The idea here is to protect e4 in the meantime. This same idea appears in the Ruy Lopez (just something to remember) and the Nb1 can go to d2, f1 (after castling and Re1), g3. e4 has backup and the popular f5 square is a possibility.

b3 is usually a good place to get your bishop out of the dark knight's stampede path. And that c3 you played...maybe there's another reason for it.

Your book should cover some the things to look for.

there may be a case of either not seeing or not caring about the opponent's threats in your game. you should start incorporating that habit of looking for the other guys dangerous ideas before you make your next move, and looking for dangerous counters to your planned move now before you make it. it will take more time but i think it is worth it.

I don't think you suck at chess Lemmy. You're daily score is in the top 15% of players here, and your puzzles score is very good and improving at a decent rate. You will break 1000 rating in the live games soon.

As to how to analyze games I hope these help:

Thanks for the feedback! I’ll go through it today.

BTW, I started playing daily games relatively recently. I try to have 2 daily games going. I hesitate to have more, because I’ve found myself getting consumed by them throughout the day. 

I used to play 30-minute games instead of 15|10, but I often found myself in time trouble in those as well. The 10 second increment is helpful in endgames. And I only play one such game a day!

Thanks! You’re right. I try to do that, but sometimes I just slip. Got to have more discipline I guess.

Thanks for the links!

I only started playing daily recently, so I don’t have many games done. Surely my rating will go down to a more reasonable place. I should not be in the 85 percentile! 
my puzzle score is relatively high, but it does not yet translate to actual games. My puzzle rating is almost double my rapid rating. I wish it was the other way around

When I protected against the check, I had this in mind from the book (similar but different):

So I made the same moves in my game without thinking (that's why it took me only 5 seconds to move). I realized my mistake just after I moved. Just a noob who half-understood an opening! 7.Nc3 Nf6 8.O-O O-O would have been totally fine.