How to Analyze and Review Your Chess Games
Playing games gives you experience.
Reviewing and analyzing your chess games is what turns that experience into improvement.
A useful chess game review is not only about finding where you blundered. It is also about noticing what both players missed, identifying the positions where the game changed, and understanding which earlier decisions created those moments.
Strong players improve by repeatedly following the same feedback loop:
- Play games
- Review them carefully
- Identify weaknesses
- Train those weaknesses
Game review is the step that connects playing with training.
Analyze the Game Yourself First
Before turning on an engine, replay the game yourself.
In her article on Chess.com, WGM Dina Belenkaya recommends analyzing the game on your own first so you can understand your thought process during the game before relying on engine assistance.
During this first pass:
- Replay the game slowly.
- Pause at positions where you spent a lot of time.
- Write down what you were thinking.
- Recall which candidate moves you considered.
The goal is not to find perfect moves.
The goal is to understand what you saw and what you missed during the game.
Identify the Critical Moments
Not every move deserves equal attention.
Focus on positions where something important happened, for example:
- a tactical opportunity appeared
- material was won or lost
- the evaluation of the position changed
- a major strategic decision was made
- the game transitioned into an endgame
It is also useful to look at both sides’ mistakes, not only your own. Many positions contain missed opportunities for both players.
Studying those moments often teaches more than simply locating the final blunder.
Use the Engine to Review the Game
After completing your own analysis, it becomes useful to bring in engine assistance.
Engines help you:
- detect missed tactics
- verify your evaluation of the position
- compare your candidate moves with stronger alternatives
When using an engine, pay attention to large evaluation swings. These often indicate a missed tactic or a critical moment in the game.
However, do not stop there.
It is also important to look earlier in the game and ask:
- What positional decisions led to this situation?
- Did my piece placement create weaknesses?
- Did a pawn move weaken my king or structure?
- Did I allow my opponent too much activity?
Sometimes the real lesson is not the final blunder, but the earlier decisions that made that blunder possible.
Understand Why the Mistake Happened
Simply labeling a move as a blunder is not very helpful.
Instead, try to understand why the mistake occurred.
Common reasons include:
- not considering an important candidate move
- stopping calculation too early
- overlooking a forcing move
- mis-evaluating the position
- missing a tactical pattern
In a Chess.com article about game analysis, GM Max Illingworth emphasizes identifying the mistake and then improving the underlying skill that caused it.
For example:
- If you repeatedly miss tactical shots, focused tactics training should probably become a priority.
See our guide on how to train chess tactics effectively. - If you struggle in certain endgames, endgame study might be more useful.
Game review helps you determine what you should train next.
How to Analyze Chess Games for Free (PGN + Lichess Method)
Many players rely on platform-specific game review tools, but it is also possible to analyze your games using other tools.
A common workflow is to export the game as PGN (Portable Game Notation) and analyze it elsewhere.
Exporting PGN from Chess.com
Chess.com allows you to export any of your games as a PGN.
To copy the PGN directly from the game page:
- Open the game you want to analyze.
- Click the Share button.
- Select the PGN tab.
- Click Copy to Clipboard.
You can now paste this PGN into other analysis tools such as Lichess or local chess software.
Importing the Game into Lichess
Lichess provides a tool where you can paste or upload a PGN file and analyze the game.
After importing the game you can:
- replay the moves
- explore alternative lines
- run engine analysis
Note: imported games are public by default. If you want private analysis with annotations, Lichess recommends using a study instead.
Local Engine Analysis (Stockfish)
Another option is analyzing games locally using Stockfish with chess software such as:
- SCID vs PC
- Arena Chess GUI
These tools allow unlimited analysis and are commonly used by players who want full control over their analysis environment.
A Simple Game Review Routine
A practical review process might look like this:
- Replay the game without an engine.
- Mark positions where you were unsure.
- Identify tactical and strategic turning points.
- Use an engine to review those moments.
- Look earlier in the game for the decisions that led to them.
- Write down one or two lessons from the game.
Over time these lessons reveal patterns in your play.
You might notice that:
- you frequently miss tactical opportunities
- certain pawn structures cause problems
- you struggle in particular endgames
These patterns tell you what to train next.
Final Thoughts
Reviewing your games does not need to take hours.
Even analyzing one or two games per week can reveal valuable insights.
The goal of game review is not simply to find the best move.
It is to understand:
- what you missed
- why you missed it
- how to avoid the same mistake in future games
Once you identify the real weakness, you can train it directly — and that is where real improvement begins.