Analyzing your games can be so powerful when done right.
But sadly, in practice, it is overwhelming many chess improvers.
Today, I want to share a mindset shift that makes it much easier – and more focused on skills, not knowledge.
Endless opportunities for improvement = overhwelm
The key component that can throw you off is that on nearly every single move you could get an improvement suggestion from the engine (or any of the game analysis tools that I don’t like).
My 3×3 Method helps with this already (for more advanced students in the SCIS course, the 3Q Method is even a little bit more sophisticated, yet still simple). You only focus on three moments during the game, thus relieving a lot of the pressure to “analyze everything”.
Now if you combine this with the right mindset, analyzing your games will be both simple and super effective. Here is the mindset:
Only analyze the implementation of knowledge you already have.
That means you don’t search for things you don’t understand yet and whenever the Engine shows something you can’t understand – well, you simply ignore it.
This allows you to focus on a few key components that matter for your level.
For example, if you are working on 1-2 move tactics with hanging pieces, you consciously look for these tactics in your game analysis. For many reading this, there will be still some mistakes in that department. Then, you dig deeper and focus on understanding how you can better implement this in your next game.
Additional Knowledge —> Ask An Expert
If you want to learn more after having played a game, you will need to consult an expert. Because you simply don’t know what to look for, often you will come up with wrong takeaways when you try learning more from your own games.
I’ve seen this so many times.
In practice, put a note on the moves you feel you didn’t play well – but can’t fully understand why. In SCIS, I call this the “curiosity study”. If you have the chance to ask a stronger player, or coach, specifically ask about these positions. And if you don’t – that’s totally fine, because these moments are just extra’s.
As part of your chess study will always involve learning more about the game, it is simpler and more effective to focus on these lessons that were structured by a human coach specifically for your level. That will be more than enough to improve your game.
That’s What Happens In Other Sports
As so often, this mindset is rather normal when you improve any other sport. For example, when I play Padel, I’m not trying to analyze every single shot I made and to understand where I could have hit the perfect shot.
Instead, I focus on 1-2 aspects of my game and try to implement them while playing. That is already hard enough!
Unsurprisingly, one of my biggest leaks is making unforced errors. Working on it will take a while. So when I make those unforced errors I try to understand why they happen (usually wanting too much / playing too ambitiously) and come up with a plan on making it better in the next point.
For more advanced improvement steps, I will have to take lessons with a coach that sees things I don’t. That’s the whole point of getting someone that is more experienced to look at our game.
Coach >>>>>>>>>>>> Engine (or AI)
In chess, there can be the illusion that we all have coaches in our pockets with Engines & AI tools. Sadly, in my opinion, currently they make more damage than they help.
Engines just scream at you on every single move with stronger moves, without providing explanations.
AI Coaches try sounding like a human coach, but just often don’t really get why a certain move is better. This makes it even worse, because like the LLMs that spread so much BS, AI coaches sound human and super confident in what they say, which makes it easier to trust their nonsense.
What both tools lack is the ability to understand how many suggestions a human can absorb and which moments are the most important ones.
Maybe one day (I currently seriously doubt we’ll ever get there) AI coaches will be so good that you don’t need us human coaches anymore. In that case, you are already prepared with a bunch of questions you can ask your silicon friend about positions you previously didn’t fully understand.
Until then, just focus on what you know already and can implement better in your future games.
Keep improving,
GM Noël Studer
PS: If you haven’t seen my YouTube video on game analysis yet, you should definitely check it out.
PPS: Why are there so many AI coaches then? Because money.
PPPS: This article was initially sent out to my Newsletter list. If you want to get chess improvement advice for free in your inbox, join 17,000+ chess improvers by signing up for Friday Grandmaster Insights here.
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