How To Analyze Your Own Games?

Hello everyone! Mohammed here, And I'm going to talk about how to analyze your games.Have you ever tried analyzing your games but didn't know how to do that? Like how to identify your weakest areas, how to strengthen these areas, etc...
Well, I've got the solution for you! I'm going to give you a couple of steps to analyze your own games and a couple of other tips to really find your weakest area. So, without further ado, let's get into it!

Step 1: Identify the mistakes made by BOTH SIDES.Well, you will probably wonder, "How can I do that?"
No problem; basically, you're going to analyze your games by hand, and what I mean by hand is that you don't use the engine. You can also use the game review feature, but the best way is to actually use your mind. 
We will learn from our mistakes and see what we should've played, and we can also learn from our opponent's mistakes, which will, in turn, make us understand the whole position better!
Step 2: Finding out what you should've seen to see the best move
As I said, no engine. So you should understand the position to see what you've missed.For instance, you missed an opportunity to make the f3-e4 plan in the Carlsbad structure.

(f3-e4 plan)

And in turn, your opponent played f5, clamping down on the center and having some kingside initiative. So now you know when the f3-e4 plan is possible and when it's not possible. So now you anticipate the f5 clamp, so you make the f3-e4 plan early. Of course that's just an example, but you get the idea.Step 3: Finding your weakest areas.
So, you've finished the first 2 steps; now what? Find your weakest area."How can I do that?"You gotta do a couple of things:
1- select a bunch of games (100, for ex)
2-Analyze them and see where YOU went wrong.
After that you will have enough games to make a statistic on your weakest areas.
And you should also dedicate your time of study depending on the percentage of the reason for your losses.
For example, you lost 70 games out of 100 due to tactics; that means 70% of your losses are from tactics. Therefore, you should dedicate 70% of your time to studying tactics.
TIPS TIME:
*Ask yourself, "In what moment in the game did I lose?"If the answer was the endgame, for example, then you should ask, "Was it a theoretical one or a complex one?" And then work on that type of endgame. If it was the opening and you didn't know the variation, for example, then study that variation.
Outro:I hope you found this one useful, and I'd like to see your opinion on these steps of the game analysis model. See you in the next one! 
If you found this one useful, take a look at this time management one!
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-lessons/time-management-in-chess 

This would be super helpful... if I new what a few of those terms meant

What is a complex loss? Theoretical loss?

Hello

Very good advice. Thanks.

Theoretical means things that are studied and known, like, for example, the Lucena position, the Vancura position, and many more. Complex/practical means that these are unknown positions that probably haven't been seen before and aren't studied. They also require a lot of calculation and stuff. I hope you now know the difference!