To analyse your own chess game, play through it once without an engine and mark the moments that felt wrong. Then find the turning point: the last move where your position was still fine, and the move after which it was not. Check that moment first, work out what you missed, and write down one thing to practise. Only then check with an engine, and only to confirm what you already found, or to check a line you could not work out yourself. Fifteen minutes on one of your own games teaches more than an hour of puzzles, because the mistakes are yours and the lesson sticks. You do not need to be strong for this. A scoresheet, ten quiet minutes, and one question, what changed, are enough.
Most players skip this part. The game ends, they start another one, and the same mistake shows up again next week. Analysis is the step that breaks that loop. Superior Chess Academy is a live online chess academy based in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, teaching students aged 5 and above, children, teens and adults, in group classes of 8 to 10 students, semi-private groups of 3 to 4, and one-to-one lessons. Every new student starts with a free trial class, booked on WhatsApp at +91 84015 33777.
Step 1 — play it through once, slowly
Start by replaying the game from the beginning, with no engine and no one else's comments. Move the pieces yourself, on a board or on the screen, and stop at every move where you remember feeling unsure. Those are the moments that matter. If you wrote the moves down during the game, use your own scoresheet. If you played online, the move list is already there. Writing the moves down slows you down enough to think, which is the point. If notation is new to you, read the guide to how to read chess notation first.
Step 2 — find the turning point
Every lost game has a turning point: the last move where your position was still fine, and the move after which it was not. Find that pair of moves and spend most of your time there. Ask what changed. A piece left undefended, a pawn move that opened a line against your king, a move spent on something that did not matter while your opponent made a threat. The answer is usually one concrete thing. If you cannot find the turning point, bring the game to your next class, point at the move where you think it went wrong, and let the coach show you the move before it. Read more in Read a Chess Position: 5 Steps.
Step 3 — check the tactics you missed
After the turning point, look for the tactics. Most beginner games are decided by a missed fork, a pin, or a back-rank mate, and the same few patterns come up again and again. Go through the game and ask, at every move, whether a piece was left undefended or a square was left weak. When you find a tactic you missed, set the position up and solve it. Find the winning move yourself before moving on. Reading about a fork is not the same as recognising one in your next game. The tactics guide in Forks, Pins and Skewers in Chess and the patterns in Checkmate Patterns for Beginners cover the ones that decide most beginner games, and the free puzzle trainer has positions to practise on. Most of those missed tactics are blunders you can train away — our guide to stopping blunders in chess gives a five-step checklist to run before every move.
Step 4 — then ask the engine
Once you have your own idea of what went wrong, check it with an engine. The engine can tell you whether your idea was right. It cannot tell you why, and memorising its top move teaches nothing. Use it to confirm the turning point you found, or to check a line you could not work out on your own. If the engine disagrees with you, look at the line it gives and work out the idea behind it before accepting it. Fifteen minutes with your own eyes first, five minutes with the engine after. The order matters more than which engine you use.
A famous game to practise on: Legal's mate, 1750
The shortest way to learn this habit is to practise it on someone else's game first. In 1750, in Paris, Legal played Saint-Brie, and the game lasted eight moves. White gave up the queen and still won, because Black took the queen without asking what the move allowed.
| Move | White (Legal) | Black (Saint-Brie) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | e4 | e5 |
| 2 | Nf3 | Nc6 |
| 3 | Bc4 | d6 |
| 4 | Nc3 | Bg4 |
| 5 | h3 | Bh5 |
| 6 | Nxe5 | Bxd1 |
| 7 | Bxf7+ | Ke7 |
| 8 | Nd5# | Checkmate |
Black's sixth move, taking the queen on d1, looks like the game is over. Black is a queen up. But the bishop on d1 is far from the defence, and White's next two moves use that. Bxf7+ forces the black king to e7, and Nd5 is checkmate: the knight covers e7 and f6, the bishop on c4 covers d5, and the king has no square. Black asked what the move won, a queen, and never asked what it allowed. Ask the second question first when you look at your own games: what does this move let my opponent do? See how the mate works in How to Checkmate in Chess.
What to write down after every game
A game you do not write down is a game you will forget by tomorrow. After each game, write three lines: the move where it turned, the tactic you missed, and one thing to practise. That is all. After a month, a notebook of three-line notes becomes a list of your most common mistakes, and that list is more useful than any book, because it is about your chess and nobody else's. Bring the notebook to class. A coach can do more with three lines about your real games than with an hour of general advice. A short daily routine helps too: see Get Better at Chess: 30-Day Plan and 10 Ways to Get Better at Chess.
Frequently asked questions
How long should analysing a game take?
About 10 to 15 minutes is enough for a beginner's game. Spend it on two or three moments that mattered, not on every move. If you try to check everything, you will remember nothing. Pick the turning point, one missed tactic, and one thing to practise, then stop.
Should I use a chess engine to analyse my games?
Yes, but only after you have looked at the game yourself first. An engine tells you which move was best, not why it was best. Look first, form your own idea of what went wrong, and then use the engine to check that idea or to look at a line you could not work out on your own.
What is the first thing to check when analysing a game?
The turning point: the last move where your position was still fine, and the move after which it was not. That one moment usually holds the lesson of the whole game. Work out what changed there before you look at anything else.
Do I need to analyse games I won?
Yes. Wins hide mistakes too. Check the moves where you were worse and got away with it, and the tactics your opponent missed. A win you do not understand teaches less than a loss you do.
Try the teaching before you decide
The only way to know if the teaching fits is to watch it. Book a free trial class on WhatsApp at +91 84015 33777 and bring a game you lost: a FIDE-rated coach will show you the turning point in it. Superior Chess Academy, Bangalore, Karnataka, India: live online chess coaching for kids, teens and adults worldwide.
Superior Chess Academy, Bangalore, Karnataka, India · WhatsApp +91 84015 33777 · superiorchessacademy.com
Related: Read a Chess Position: 5 Steps · How to Checkmate in Chess: A Beginner's Guide · Checkmate Patterns for Beginners · Forks, Pins and Skewers in Chess · How to Start in Chess: The Complete Beginner's Roadmap (2027) · Get Better at Chess: 30-Day Plan · 10 Ways to Get Better at Chess · How to Read Chess Notation · Free puzzle trainer: 100 tactics puzzles · Chess Curriculum: 5 Levels · Beginner Chess Course · How to Stop Blundering in Chess
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