What is the chess equivalent of watching a recording of your own golf swing, tennis stroke, or basketball shot to learn how to improve your game? Most chess coaches will tell you that if you want to improve at chess, you need to analyze your own games. But what does that mean? Like any skill or sport, if you want to get better, you must reflect on your own play and use that reflection to improve.

What is Chess Analysis?

Once you have played a game of chess, hopefully, you have notated the game. If it were a tournament game, then you had to, and if it was online, then the game is recorded for you! Chess analysis is the process of looking at your own game and thinking deeply about your moves, especially your mistakes. Were there any moments where the game swung from win to loss? Learn from those moments!

How to Analyze Your Games

There is more to analyzing your games than just “thinking deeply.” So, what are the steps to take to successfully analyze your games? Let’s start with how to analyze. First, where should you be analyzing? These are two great ways to do this, but I’m sure there are even more ways and resources online.

Writing Out Your Notes in a Notebook

When I first started playing chess as an adult, I took games I had played online, and wrote down the games move by move, doing chess analysis in a dedicated notebook, taking notes on why I had played certain moves by hand into the notebook. While now I generally use a digital method of annotating my games, I think writing by hand can actually be a very helpful method of thinking critically about our moves.

Using a Lichess Study for Chess Improving

For a more efficient annotating method, a Lichess study is a great free option for organizing your games and notes about those games. You can make a free account on Lichess.org and use the Study feature. You can import a game's PGN if you played it on a different chess website, and if you played the game in person, then you can copy over the game from your notation. Why is this useful? Keeping your games all together can also help you catch trends in your play. You or a coach can see all the games together and see possible areas where you make consistent mistakes.

Take Notes After Chess Matches

Either in your Lichess study or in your notebook,  go through the game and write any memories you have of why you played the moves that you played. If you took lots of time during certain moments, it can be helpful to note what your thoughts were that led you to make those decisions. Be honest with yourself! Hone in on the mistakes that you made.

Use the Eval Bar, But Not the Whole Game Review.

Try not to use the “request a computer analysis” or "game analysis" feature at first, because then your memory of the game will be influenced. If you want, you can turn on the eval bar so that you know which moments to focus on and see if you can identify the mistake.

Steps to Notate for Chess Players

1. Go through the whole game and note any moment where you remember the thoughts going through your head in the moment.
2. Focus on the blunders. With the eval bar or not, focus on the moments you think were big mistakes. Why you think it is a mistake will help you improve, even if it turns out you misunderstand the position.
3. Then, learn from the mistakes! Either take those games to a coach, or figure out which moment you were out of opening theory so that you can add to that opening knowledge. Same with the middle or endgame, by analyzing, you can determine where your shortcomings are.

Key Questions to Ask Yourself

• What was my plan in this position?
  • If you remember your idea behind a move, make a note. Looking at it now, ask yourself if you still stand by that reasoning or if you now disagree with yourself.
• Did I miss any threats or tactics?
  • Throughout the whole game, being on the lookout for threats or tactics that you wish can help you improve. If you are a beginner player, then your opponent may have also missed a win. Showing the game to a coach can also help with this.
• Was my time management effective?
  • Take note of your time usage during the game. Are you using that time effectively? This can also be helpful to look at over the course of many games. By looking at all the games together, you can detect a trend in your time usage.
• Were there any moves that my opponent played that surprised me?
  • If you were surprised during moments in the game, that means you didn’t fully calculate. Now, they might have played a bad move, but the worst feeling is when your opponent plays a move that you did not expect. So take note of those moments for review later to determine what you missed.

When Should I Analyze?

Some people wonder about when they should analyze their games. Is it directly after their game too early? I think the earlier the better! Because you want to record your thoughts from during the game, the longer you wait, the more of your thoughts you will forget. 

What to Avoid

The main problems you can have during your analysis are relying on the computer analysis. It is more important to think through the game and your blunders on your own than to just look through the great moves you could have played. 

Only Analyzing Wins

Another issue I see often is students only wanting to analyze the games they are proud of. It is certainly okay to look at your wins and be proud of them! But make sure you also look at your losses. Those are often the games we can learn even more from. 

Analyze With Your Opponent

If you are playing in an over-the-board tournament, then you can often review the game with your opponent. Later, you should still annotate your game, but doing chess analysis and talking through key moments with your opponent can help you clarify some of what you were thinking during the game. They might have some great insight that you would never get from just looking at the game yourself. This is also a great way to make friends in the chess community, as some players will play tournaments regularly, and you may see them again!

Using a Chess Coach to Analyze Your Games

Once you have notated a large number of your games, it can be a great time to bring the games to a chess coach. A coach can look at your chess analysis and at a number of games and see the problems that pop up multiple times in your game. Not only that, but they can also help you notice the problems that you missed. Most chess coaches will be thrilled if you show them these kinds of notes about your games, and it will help them diagnose issues that you have.

How to Find a Chess Coach

There are multiple ways to find a great chess coach, but I would start by looking at the chess clubs in your area. There are likely many great chess coaches locally, and they can help you improve your game. If you can’t find anyone locally, I would look at different online resources. You can find coaches online on Lichess and other sources.

You Will Improve if You Do Chess Analysis

There are many ways to improve your chess, but truly being focused on your own moves and reviewing your games will help you improve. If you have found that you aren’t improving in your game, this, especially paired with a coach, will absolutely help you improve.

Frequently Asked Questions