8/30/2017 Ultimate Chess Game Analysis Tutorial

Ultimate Chess Game Analysis Tutorial [cheatsheet enclosed]

WGM Raluca Sgîrcea, IM Renier Castellanos Category: Training Techniques
08.29.2017 Tags: training, middlegame, game analysis

Probably one of
the most
important steps in
improving your
chess is the self-
criticism. It is
essential that you
are fair with
yourself and admit
that every game
you play might
contain errors that
have to be
eliminated from
your play,
regardless of the
result of the
game. One way (and very efficient, too) to find those mistakes you still make is to analyze your own
games and draw the necessary conclusions. When our students ask us what they should do in order to
get better at chess, this is one of the first things we suggest them to do. Every strong player keeps track of
their games, so why shouldn’t you start doing it as well?
How should you start doing this?
Follow these simple steps and you will soon have a useful database to consult whenever you feel it is
necessary.

Step 1. Create your database

A database is where you save and analyze all your games.

One of the programs that can be used for creating and modifying chess databases is ChessBase. It comes
with many useful tools to help chess players and here you can start by creating the database of your own
games where you will keep adding them one by one. You can do this by selecting File -> New -> Database.
Here is what it looks like in Chessbase 13:

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Now you will have to choose a location for the database, name it (for example “My Games”) and choose an
extension – we recommend that you keep the extension “Database (.cbh)”.
After this step, the icon should appear in the main window of your Chessbase. You can further personalize it
by right clicking on the symbol, selecting “Properties” and then “My games” from the list provided. Click “OK”
and you have your own games database!

Step 2. Make a habit out of introducing your games into the database and
annotating them right after the round
This is important since you have all the ideas you had during the game still fresh and you can write them
down for future revision. When saving the game in the database, write down the plans or ideas you had in
mind while playing and save the variations you have calculated.
Don’t turn the engine on just yet; leave this for later, when you will analyze the game in depth and draw
conclusions. Sometimes it’s better not to “ask” the engine where you went wrong during the tournament.
They never fail in finding the tactical resources in the position and suddenly seeing a high score in a position
you considered equal during the game might affect your moral for the future games.
Do this once the tournament is over and you are back to studying. What could prove useful though during the
tournament is checking your play in the opening phase.
Look at a few games by strong players to see the ideas they employed, especially if you didn’t get a good
middlegame. You could also briefly check the theory, just to be prepared to meet it in the correct way in case
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another opponent will repeat it against you during the same tournament.

Step 3. Analyze your games in depth

Once the tournament is over and you can retake your study routine, start playing through the games with
fresh eyes and check what you have annotated in the previous step. First try to do it without a computer and
with the chess board, exactly as if you were going to sit down for study.

Opening
Start with the opening; if you didn’t get out of it well, do a thorough check of your lines.
Look for novelties and see if it’s necessary to update or improve your variations. If you were faced an
opening you didn’t know, add it to the list of openings you must include in your repertoire database and start
investigating it once you’ve finished analyzing your games.

Middlegame
Moving on to the middlegame, find the critical moments of the game and look again if you have taken the
right decision. A critical moment is when you have to take a big decision, one that usually influences the way
the advantage goes. Most of the times it is right after the opening when it is time to make a plan and decide
the direction of the game. It can also be a moment when you miss a decisive blow or fail to see your
opponent’s threats.
Train yourself to find such moments and during the game, you will be able to “feel” when you need to spend
some more time in order to search for a better move.
Take another look at the lines you calculated and see if it was all correct or they contain flaws. Spend more
time especially on the critical moments you have identified before. After the game, a player usually knows at
what moment he/she went wrong or when he/she started losing the advantage. That is where you have to
start looking for an improvement and put down the move or variation you have come up with.

Step 4 – Turn the engine on

After all this, it is time for the cruel reality!
Go through the game and your own analysis with the engine on and see what you could have improved and
if there’s any tactical idea you’ve missed. When the computer suggests a better continuation (that is not
tactics), follow the line and understand the idea behind it. See what plan it finds and why it works better from
a strategic point of view.

Step 5 – Draw conclusions

After you have finished analyzing, see where you’ve gone wrong and conclude what is it that you have to
improve. If you have gotten a bad position right after the opening, check the theory, the newest games
played in that particular line and update your opening database. If you notice that there are moves you
haven’t considered during the game or that you have miscalculated something, then you should work on
calculation and selecting the candidate moves.
If you’ve missed tactical ideas, increase the time spent on solving puzzles. If there is some strategic element
you don’t master well, gather more information on it and see more games played by strong players.
Here is an example of a commented game in its final form:

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Insert Castellanos-Tomescu.pgn

Castellanos, Renier vs Tomescu, Vlad

Romanian Team Championship Mamaia 11 Oct
2015 1-0

1. e4 e5 2.  f3 c6 3.  b5 a6

4.  a4 f6 5. d3 d6 6. c3
6. c4 is also interesting; to be
To sum things up… investigated 6...g6 6... d7 is
another option for black 7. O-O g7
In conclusion, there are a few interesting lines in the opening
8. h3 to be 8. investigated
bd2 I and
havelooked
manyfurther into for
future games. I failed to find the suitable plan from the beginning
times and made a
started few8. 
with waiting moves, but in the
e1 O-O
9.  bd2 but here black
end, I managed to get the right set-up – something that can be useful for the next games.has an interesting
idea h5 10.  f1 f5 11. exf5 xf5
Also, I missed a few ideas for my opponent during the game,12.  g5 so I should
f6 13.  focus
h6 on g7 improving
14.  g5 my calculation
skills for finding the rival’s best answers. f6 15.  h6 g7 1/2-1/2 (16)
Castellanos Rodriguez,R (2465)-Perez
Candelario,M
We hope that this short tutorial will help you create your own database(2575) Linares ESPgames
of commented 2014 and you will be
8...O-O 9.  e3 !? This is an interesting
able to identify your weaknesses and keep improving. Thank you for reading and feel free to ask us
idea that has been used by Akopian and
questions if you have any doubts. Alekseev, both specialists in the Spanish
with 5.d3 9.  bd2 is also possible
Good luck!
9.  e1 b5 10.  c2 b7
Here is the complete game analysis Cheat Sheet. Save it for your reference!

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