How do you analyze games?

I am finally starting to analyze the games I play (after I play them).
I find this very helpful, but laborious and difficult

I would appreciate hearing how others analyze their games.

I feel I do not yet have the skills to see my and my opponent's mistakes. I found ChessBase Light will analyze my game (as I replay it), which is very helpful but awkward and time-consuming.

I find that this excercise is helping me to improve (finally!).
I have analyzed about eight of my games, and would like to do this
with most of them.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Originally posted by zucchini
I am finally starting to analyze the games I play (after I play them).
I find this very helpful, but laborious and difficult

I would appreciate hearing how others analyze their games.

I feel I do not yet have the skills to see my an ...[text shortened]... most of them.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I've very recently begun analysing my own games, and I've found this method very helpful to start off with.

http://www.chesswise.com/Miganalysis.htm

http://www.chesswise.com/Mig5Move.htm

I've been using this to go over the game first, and then I work my way through again for a more detailed analysis. It makes the task a little less daunting, and helps you realise where you should concentrate most of your attention.

http://www.chesswise.com/Miganalysis.htm
http://www.chesswise.com/Mig5Move.htm

Thank you for this reference. I looked over these articles. To summarize:
The author suggests replaying your games, and examining the position every five moves or so, looking for where the position starts to become uneven. Then look at those locations more closely. He suggests that you will get the most out of evaluating the games on your own.

I will start doing this, as I think it will help me develop analyitcal skills.

However, I think I still need someone else (or a computer) to help me evaluate my games. I find that my own analysis doesn't help me find my opponent's mistakes if I overlooked them during the actual game.

I'm still looking for more advice regarding using software to help me with this process.

I'm still looking for advice on analyzing games.

This is what I am doing so far:

After the game is over, I import the PGN into a ChessBase database.
I replay the game (on the computer) with analysis off, paying attention to captures.
I then replay it with analysis enabled, and I look for changes in the score of a point or more. I only analyze my color.
Once I find a problem, I try to find the cause, and make an annotation at the point that sets up the problem. (Sometimes, I cannot find the cause, which is very frustrating. 😳)

I would like to be able to save some of these key positions where I have flubbed so I can review them easily. Any ideas here? It seems that the chess software I have (Fritz8, ChessBase Light) should help me but I haven't figured out how to do this yet.

So far I have analyzed about 20 of my games this way, and I have found blunders of mine in all but one. This is proving to be very helpful to me.

I would greatly appreciate any more game analysis ideas.

Thanks.

Originally posted by zucchini
I'm still looking for advice on analyzing games.

This is what I am doing so far:

After the game is over, I import the PGN into a ChessBase database.
I replay the game (on the computer) with analysis off, paying attention to captures.
I then replay it with analysis enabled, and I look for changes in the score of a point or more. I only analyze my c ...[text shortened]... e very helpful to me.

I would greatly appreciate any more game analysis ideas.

Thanks.

You have fritz so you have everything you need.When analysing your games,right click in the move list,this brings up a window where you can select to make a comment before or after the move you clicked.If you later save that game and reload it when you want to have another look at it,your annotations will be there.To create key positions,you go to the file menu-->select 'new'-->positon setup,you set up any position you like,make annotations if you like and simply save it.That's how it works with fritz7,I assume fritz8 will not be different.
Is this what you wanted?

Sir Lot.

Originally posted by SirLoseALot
Is this what you wanted?

Not quite, but thanks anyway.

I think I have a handle on how to annotate and save games, but I am looking for advice regarding the process. How do I speed this up? What are good habits I can develop to make my play stronger? Maybe there is a book that offers advice?

But I am looking for a "training" function in some software. This "training" function would allow me to save the positions from which my mistakes started, so I could quiz myself on them. Essentially, making my own set of puzzles from my own games. It would be great if this "training" function has a mode in which it selects from the positions randomly. I remember reading about something like this, but can't find it.

Originally posted by zucchini
Not quite, but thanks anyway.

I think I have a handle on how to annotate and save games, but I am looking for advice regarding the process. How do I speed this up? What are good habits I can develop to make my play stronger? Maybe there is a book that offers advice?

But I am looking for a "training" function in some software. This "training" fu ...[text shortened]... rom the positions randomly. I remember reading about something like this, but can't find it.

Aha!I think you want bookup.Check it out here:
http://www.bookup.com/

In my schoolboy days I went through a couple of years of passion for chess, and then I went on to other hobbies for decades and am only now looking into the game again. The local public library back then had about 20 books on chess. Three or so of them were written by Larry Evans, and I found those the most enjoyable to read. I remember that in at least one of the Evans books he went through a (grand?) master game and told what thoughts the players were likely thinking at each move.

It would take a lot of work, so maybe this won't happen--but! ... Wouldn't it be neat if two strong players here were to agree ahead of their game against one another to jot down notes of what they are thinking as the game proceeds? Then they could each type those notes into a thread in the Forum here after the game is over, and the rest of us could gain some insight into the thinking that goes into the game. I for one would find that fascinating.

I download the PGN file and load it into Chessmaster. I let it analyze the game for me. It is the lazy way, but it finds things I still can't. Usually it will find about 7 or 8 moves out from the current move and let you know what would have been better. It also lets me know when I really screwed up. I have been slowly learning that way, and it saves me having to go through all of the frelling books to find it all

For an overall understanding, ‘Logical Chess Move by Move’ is a really nice book to read. Many people recommend it, and I found it very helpful, too. It will make you understand why some of the moves are considered worse while there is no immediate lose of material in a couple of moves.

I use Fritz to analyze my own games. Download as pgn, run full analysis or just blunder check. Usually I set to 10-second per move, but you can adjust it as you like. I just run it overnight for multiple games. And when I go over the games, I look for the missed chances or blunders from both sides. I find many. In some positions, I run deep analysis to find out the other alternative moves, but not often.

At my strength level (1300-1400 on the net), checking blunders were enough. Trying to make your own training material out of your own games might not be reasonable if you think of the time needed to set-up the material and you will just solve it by remembering it not by thinking.

CT-ART is one of the software which will give you lots of exercise material for tactical moves.

For positional analysis, I don’t think Fritz is that useful at least in my level. Reading annotated games of masters seems to be helpful in that.

Originally posted by Knighty

Thanks for your comments.

For an overall understanding, ‘Logical Chess Move by Move’ is a really nice book to read.

I agree. I am going through it now, but it takes me quite a while.

I use Fritz ... I just run it overnight for multiple games.

I didn't know you could do this. Very helpful. Thanks.

Trying to make your own training material out of your own games might not be reasonable...

I understand what you mean, but I think I need to memorize any patterns that occur repeatedly. Maybe you or someone else has other ideas of how to do this?

CT-ART ...

Thanks for the recommendation, but for now I will stick to my two tactics books: Seriwan's "Tactics", and Bain's "Chess Tactics for Students."

positional analysis?

What is "positional analysis? Does this mean a natural language description of a position, as opposed to the pawn-based score?

I would strongly advise taking 5-10 minutes to note down your thoughts on critical positions after the game, as you put it into Chessbase / Fritz / whatever. Even just to highlight where you felt you were better, where did the game turn against you / in your favour, what moves were you worried about.

Then letting Fritz blundercheck for you will provide some useful data. Without this I don't think it helps at all, as you simply play over lines given with no real involvement, so it limits the ability to recall the plans / tactics.

(ideally spend 30-60 minutes after a game doing your own analysis. However this is usually far too much like hard work 🙂 )

Zucchini,

I tried to make the training material myself, but found it too much effort without that much return. The first reason is what I said above, I found that I would just remember the answer and the next time I meet the similar situation, I could only remember it looks familiar. Some of the patterns in your favorite opening lines are useful if you make notes and try to review them whenever similar position arises.

If you want to try it, for opening lines, Bookup is another software for your own opening strategy. I tried only the demo version very briefly, but it was a little too much for me at that time. I’ve used my Palm with PocketChess to store the position and answers. It worked like flash cards, for example, it shows the board and I should decide what is the best next move. Quite a work to prepare the material, though.

I’ve used positional analysis in a sense of that finding a move to improve one’s position in a very slow or closed position. Like, will it be better to move a-pawn to gain more space or reposition a Bishop one diagonal down to support e-pawn, but both move will make less than 20/100 pawn difference in Fritz analysis. When I play a good game, without making a stupid blunder, against a strong player, usually he will gain 10/100 or 20/100 pawn advantage in 2-3 moves even when there is no capture. Fritz shows the different score, but it is still hard for me to understand what makes the difference.

Where can I find Fritz at?

Originally posted by olsonm76
Where can I find Fritz at?

http://www.chessbase.com/shop/