How to analyze a chess game

Step 1: Get the game onto a board

You cannot analyze a game on paper. Enter or scan the moves so you can replay them. If you played over the board, see our guide to digitizing a chess scoresheet. If you played online, the game is already saved for you, simply export it as PGN and upload it into Kibitzz.

Step 2: Review the game before turning on the engine

Replay the game yourself first and write down what you thought at the key moments: where you were uncertain, where you felt you were better, and where the game turned. This step is the most valuable one, because it shows you how you think, and an engine cannot tell you that.

Step 3: Run the analysis engine and find the critical moments

Now check your notes against the engine analysis. Do not read every line. Look for the moves where the evaluation swings sharply, because those are the critical moments where the game was won or lost.

An evaluation of +1.0 roughly means White is ahead by the equivalent of a pawn. What matters is the change from one move to the next, and whether the engine move was something you could realistically have found.

Step 4: Find out why you erred

For each critical moment, decide which kind of error it was. The cause tells you what to practice.

• A tactical oversight: you missed a threat or a combination.
• A positional misjudgment: you chose the wrong plan or traded the wrong pieces.
• An opening gap: you left your preparation too early or did not know the idea.
• Time pressure: the move came with very little time left.
• An endgame technique error: a winning or drawn position was mishandled.

Step 5: Look for patterns, not single games

One game shows one mistake. Ten games show what you keep doing. The Kibitzz Insights page gives you exactly this. If most of your swings are tactical oversights, drill tactics. If they cluster in the opening, fix your repertoire. Visit the Insights page to track your common errors after every game.

Step 6: Turn the findings into practice

End each review by writing one or two concrete things to work on, such as a tactical motif you missed or an endgame to study, and then practice those specifically. Analysis only pays off when it changes what you train.

Kibitzz is built around this loop. After it digitizes your scoresheet and runs Stockfish, it highlights the critical moments and explains in plain English what changed, what was missed and what to improve.