Games won or games lost?

When trying to improve one's game you can read books, study openings, do tactics and study past games. When studying past games is it better to look at games won to see what has worked or look at games lost to see where you have went wrong?

GV

Originally posted by Nighthawk62
When trying to improve one's game you can read books, study openings, do tactics and study past games. When studying past games is it better to look at games won to see what has worked or look at games lost to see where you have went wrong?

GV

looking at games you have won can only help by giving you confidence. often i cripple against higher rated players because i assume my moves are rubbish and im going to lose, if i was more confident id survive longer probably. but looking at lost games is definately better for learning

Both are important. Even in games won you will still make mistakes. Instead,(assuming that you won a hard fought game) analyze what mistake caused your opponet to lose. Since it was a hard fought game, it would be a subtle mistake which could help you later if you knew how to avoid it.

I agree with the above post...won games tend to show you where your opponent went wrong, lost games show where you went wrong....wasn't it Karpov that once said "Most chess games are lost rather than won" meaning they tend to be decided by mistakes rather than brilliancies.