How to Analyse Your Own Games

Turning a completed game into new chess knowledge

Every serious chess game offers valuable experience. Experience by itself, however, does not guarantee improvement. A player can play hundreds of games and keep making the same mistakes without ever asking why they occurred.

That is why analysing your own games is one of the most important forms of chess training. Finding the best moves is one goal. Understanding the thinking that led to your decisions matters even more.

1. Why Analyse Your Own Games?

When we study grandmaster games, we see sound plans, precise combinations and well-converted advantages. When we analyse our own games, we discover something no book can fully show us: our personal habits, weaknesses and way of thinking.

Analysis can reveal:

• Which positions we understand well.
• In which situations we make mistakes most often.
• How accurately we evaluate positions.
• How we choose candidate moves.
• Whether we examine our opponent's options carefully enough.
• How we manage time on the clock.
• How emotions affect our decisions.

The better we understand our own play, the more precisely we can plan our training.

2. First, Record Your Thoughts from the Game

As soon as possible after the game, write down the most important thoughts you had while playing. Many details fade later, especially the lines you calculated, the plans you rejected and the reasons you chose a particular move.

It helps to note:

• Which moves you seriously considered.
• Which variations you calculated.
• What you expected your opponent to do.
• When you felt unsure.
• Where you spent the most time.
• How you assessed your position.

These notes form the basis for a more detailed analysis later.

3. Analyse Without an Engine

Make your first thorough review of the game independently.

Modern chess engines quickly find tactical mistakes and strong continuations. Switching one on immediately can lead you to skip the most important part of learning. You get a ready-made answer before you have tried to find a solution yourself. That approach can help you check your work, but it does little to develop independent thinking.

How to Analyse Without an Engine

1. Go through the whole game without rushing.
2. Stop at critical positions.
3. Evaluate the position yourself.
4. Find alternative moves.
5. Calculate the most important variations.
6. Write down your conclusions and any questions that remain.

4. How Can You Recognise Critical Moments?

Moves differ in importance. Some positions offer several roughly equal continuations, while in others one decision can fundamentally change the character of the game. We call these positions critical moments.

They often arise when:

• You must decide whether to change the pawn structure.
• You are considering an important exchange.
• A tactical strike is possible.
• You must choose between attack and defence.
• You are considering a material sacrifice.
• The game is moving from the middlegame into an endgame.
• You have to decide in time trouble.

Give these moments particular attention during analysis.

5. Evaluate the Position Before Calculating

Before calculating concrete lines, take an objective look at the main features of the position.

Consider:

• The material balance.
• The safety of both kings.
• Piece activity and coordination.
• Pawn structure.
• Weak squares and weak pawns.
• Control of open files.
• Any advantage in space.
• Possible plans for both sides.

Evaluation helps us understand what the position calls for. We can then choose candidate moves more effectively and begin calculating in detail.

6. Candidate Moves and Missed Opportunities

Finding a move that is objectively stronger than the one you played is only part of the analysis. You also need to understand why you did not consider it during the game.

7. Distinguish a Mistake in the Move from a Mistake in Thinking

Two players can make the same bad move for completely different reasons. One might have miscalculated a concrete line. Another might have calculated correctly but misjudged the resulting position. A third might have missed the opponent's option entirely.

That is why it matters to distinguish between types of mistakes.

8. When Should You Turn On Stockfish?

Use the engine after you have analysed independently. Stockfish can help you check your conclusions, discover tactical possibilities and find continuations you had not considered. Use the engine to check your thinking while doing the reasoning yourself.

A Useful Order of Work

1. Analyse the game independently.
2. Write down your evaluations and variations.
3. Check critical positions with the engine.
4. Work out the ideas behind the suggested lines.
5. Compare your conclusions with the engine's findings.
6. Draw lessons for future games.

When the engine suggests an unusual move, remembering that it is best is only a start. Find out why it works, what threats it creates and why the alternatives are weaker.

9. How to Annotate a Game

Long engine variations alone make for incomplete analysis. The most useful annotations explain the ideas, plans and reasons behind decisions.

For example, you can make “Move 15 is a mistake” more useful by writing:

This kind of note reveals your thinking and can guide future training.

10. Analysing Wins Is Just as Important

Many players examine only their losses in detail. Wins can also contain serious mistakes, missed opportunities and incorrect evaluations. Sometimes your opponent fails to exploit an error and you win despite playing poorly.

Judge the quality of the game separately from its result.

11. How to Turn Analysis into Training

The most important outcome of analysis should be a concrete plan for what to work on next.

If a student regularly makes mistakes in rook endings, spend more time on that area. If the student frequently misses an opponent's tactical opportunities, practise spotting threats. If the student misjudges positions with an isolated queen's pawn, study model games with that structure. Each game you analyse can guide the next step in your training.

12. A Practical Game Analysis Worksheet

Students can fill in this worksheet after each serious game.

13. The Coach's Role in Analysis

A coach should avoid revealing the best move immediately. It is more useful to ask questions that encourage the student to think independently.

• How did you evaluate this position?
• What plan did you want to carry out?
• Which alternatives did you consider?
• What did you expect your opponent to do?
• Would you make the same decision today?
• What did you learn from this moment?

In this way, coach and student investigate the game together.

Conclusion

Analysing your own games is one of the most effective ways to discover your actual strengths and weaknesses.

Finding the objectively best moves is useful. Understanding your own thinking, identifying the causes of mistakes and drawing practical lessons matters more. Independent analysis, work with a coach and careful use of an engine should complement one another.