how to properly analyze a game

Can someone give me some insight on how to properly analyze my games? Maybe turn me on to an effective article or provide some solid advice. Thank you!

Don't remember the guys name, but an IM once said that doing your own analysis is one of the best things you can do to improve.  But its also one of, if not the most over thought things someone players do.  

Keep it simple.  

Get a pen and paper, set up a board, and pieces.  Write down your ideas, how you felt, plans, thoughts, etc. for each move.  

You're new to this, so it doesnt need to be perfect.  Its going to be a work in progress.

I took one of your games and added some comments as an idea of what i am talking about.  

 

 

 

https://www.ichess.net/blog/analyze-your-game/

there is one link that gets puts up on analysis so maybe someone will paste it

sometimes i will take notes during a live game (30 min)

things like does my position feel solid; am i worried about something; noting times where you take a long time to move; noticing critical moments, etc

afterwards (i usually wait a day; i play 3 30 min games one day and spend another day to analyze) i try to mimic what chernev does in logical chess move by move: start at move 1. and go over as much as you can; use your notes you took during game and use those to help with analysis

if i am feeling really diligent i will finish the whole game without engine assistance; trying to notice position strength, tactics, missed opportunities (even for opponent,)

then after this scroll through the game looking at the engine shift in case there is a tactic that comes about; and/or a bad blunder and really look at it until the point sinks in

if you can get a better player, coach, or even chess.com lobby (glhf) to go over things with you this is icing on the cake

analyzing my games really helped me; even or especially as a lower rated player- even as a floundering fish i can learn something really helpful every game

catdogorb... I am not the original poster but just thought I would say this was a most useful post, thanks

 

There is a book by Dan Heisman called The Improving Annotator.  It shows how he improved over time in analyzing his games.  

I think a trick for analysis is to try and find the critical position and analyse just that position as thoroughly as possible, at least when you are a beginner. There will be too much information to wrap your head around if you analyse every position in a game.

 

You will most likely pick a position that wasnt critical and most of your analysis will be poor. However, as you get better you will not only become more accurate in your analysis but a better judge of the positions you get as well.

 

Also play "guess the move" with a chess set and a good annotated master game. Use a notebook to annotate the game yourself so that you can check the annotations you wrote with those of the master, kind of like taking an exam.

I also personally keep a log of the master games I have analysed and when I analysed them. I also have them organized by player in my notebook. This way I can go back, analyse a game again after an appropriate amount of time and compare not only with the masters analysis but my old analysis as well. My plan is to do this until a game is memorised and then remove it from the log and store the notes for that game for possible future reference.

 

This might be too much for most people but I have plenty of time on my hands.

I'm only a average club level player but self analyzing my games afterwards seems to have helped me. Go through each move you made with some paper and pencil and write down why you made each move, your thought process at the time, etc... If you are in a club or something asking the club expert to go over your games with you is invaluable. Finally I recommend using an engine to analyze but only after you have done it yourself.

thank you everyone!!

#15

re: phase 6 and jotting down some general lessons or goals in improvement is most helpful

the analysis process in and of itself benefits in both long and short term but having a "summary" after each analyses gives me an immediate plan to implement the very next game

You analyze the game by asking why

Wrong website sir.

100% correct. There are 50% trolls and 49% noobs. 

Good luck in getting advice from the rest 1%.🤔