Improve your chess skills by analyzing your own beginner games. Learn how to review moves, spot mistakes, and enhance your gameplay with key tips.
Efficient Study and Learning from Mistakes for Chess Beginners
First, you need to accept that improving requires dedicating time. To commit time, you need to enjoy the process. If you're not having fun, it will be nearly impossible to reach your target level.
In the end, I plan to increase the accuracy of my moves in my chess games each week. You can also set a schedule based on the time you can dedicate.
Key Features of Games I'll Analyze for Chess Improvement
I will seek answers to questions like; how I should analyze my games, how I can improve my chess by learning from games, how I can spot my mistakes, and how to use chess platforms effectively.
If I can’t answer these questions, there might be something wrong with the time control I’ve chosen, my playing style, or my approach. Or maybe I’m not spending enough time on it, or I don’t know how to make good use of chess resources and platforms.
- I prefer to play 10+5 time control game (rapid) and analyze it move by move. The purpose is to examine my own chess games, create a sense of urgency to avoid repeating mistakes in future matches, and improve over time. The reason I choose a longer time control is that it gives me time to think before making a move, which is crucial for self-improvement in chess. It’s much harder to develop through faster time controls like 3+0 blitz or 1+0 bullet games.
When analyzing, I'm not focused on the result. Whether I win or lose, I will still analyze the game.
- Switching to different openings or principles in every game makes it harder to build on your previous learning. Therefore, it’s better to stick with a solid opening, like the Italian Opening or the Spanish Opening, which allow rapid development and provide safety for the king.
Let’s now analyze the game. In the opening, my opponent made an unexpected response d5, which led the game away from the familiar openings I wanted to play.
How Should I Analyze My Games?
Analyzing the Game as It Was Played
One mistake I made early on when analyzing was trying to follow correct moves and continuations in a disorganized manner. Instead of getting lost in hundreds of variations after every mistake, I focus on the consequences of each move in the game. I only examine the correct moves afterward.
I started the game with e4, and my opponent played d5. Wait a minute, what do e4 and d5 mean?
I captured the pawn, and when my opponent recaptured with the queen, I developed my knight to c3, gaining a tempo.
Tempo move: A move that forces your opponent to respond, like attacking one of their pieces, giving you an initiative. Here, I developed my knight and attacked the queen at the same time, forcing my opponent to respond and delaying their development.
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| What We Have Played so Far |
During the analysis, you can follow along with the moves right here: full game.
My opponent retreated the queen to d6, losing a tempo. However, the queen is still centralized and exposed. I thought this was not good for my opponent.
I played pawn d3, aiming to block the queen and open up my bishop. However, Stockfish suggested Nf3 instead. This small mistake reduced my advantage from +0.7 to equality. What I learned from the computer’s suggestion is that I should have aimed to gain more space while the queen was still exposed. I will review the correct moves later, but for now, let’s continue analyzing the game.
Up to this point in the review, I’ve gained 1 point of knowledge for my future games.
My opponent developed their bishop to f5, targeting my d3 pawn. In response, I played the aggressive move g4, attacking the bishop. This move shifted the evaluation from +0.4 to -0.6, costing me another point. My opponent is benefiting from my play. Had I thought more before making the move, I would have seen that the computer recommends Qf3, which is an excellent move.
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| Qf3 Move |
My opponent retreated their bishop to g6 without much thought, focusing on avoiding the attack. Psychologically, they were just trying to protect their attacked piece, but they could have played Qe6+ instead, attacking both my g4 pawn and threatening my king.
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Qe6+ was the Best Move. My Opponent Retreated the Bishop to g6 |
This taught me a valuable lesson: Before pushing an unprotected piece forward, I need to think about what counterattacks my opponent might have. Here, my queen is protecting the pawn, and this is a job I should not have given to the queen. At any moment, the queen may have a more important job and I may have to give up that pawn.
Afterward, I played a3 with two reasons in mind. First, I wanted to prevent my opponent from pinning my knight on c3 in the future. Second, I was planning to castle long, and I wanted to give my king an escape square. According to the engine, this move wasn’t a huge mistake, but it was unnecessary. I could have created a more short-term plan, like targeting the cramped g6 bishop.
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| The Unnecessary Move (a3) |
My opponent pushed e6, creating a queen-bishop battery. However, the computer suggests the move h5 to attack my weakened kingside and open up lines for their rook. This would have been a serious advantage for my opponent.
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| My Oppenent Played e6 |
By playing Bg5, I may have been aiming to trap my opponent’s position, but honestly, I don't understand why I did it. My idea was to push their knight or create a weakness with my bishop. However, this was a big mistake.
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| Bg5 ?! move |
Stockfish is saying to me, 'This is a ?! move.' To my opponent, it's saying, 'Pushing the pawn to h5 would have been correct, but you played Qe6+.
In chess notation, ?! represents a dubious move.
My opponent played Qe6+, attacking both my king and my bishop. But instead of focusing on defense, I tried a speculative sacrifice. I moved my knight to e4, defending my bishop while baiting my opponent to take the knight and allow me to trap their queen. However, I missed a hidden tactical resource in the position.
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| Fork |
All the pieces inside the green circle are defending against the check. I could have especially moved my bishop from g5 to e3, blocking the check and protecting both my king and bishop at the same time.
Let's see what I played after this fork, and what trap I set up:
If I had defended my king with Nge2 instead of Be3, my opponent would have taken my rook on h1, but I could have delivered a beautiful checkmate by playing Qd8 with my queen.
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| Checkmate with Queen and Bishop |
After playing Be3 and losing my rook, Stockfish evaluates the position as -4.5, indicating a lost game. I played Nf3, defending my bishop and blocking the queen’s path. My opponent played Nf6, attacking my g4 pawn, but this gave me an opportunity.
I castled long and immediately attacked the d8 square, threatening checkmate. My opponent missed this threat, and after capturing my knight, I delivered checkmate with Qd8#.
In this game, both my opponent and I showed significant weaknesses. We both lacked positional evaluation, prioritization, and opening knowledge.
How I Can Spot My Mistakes in a Chess Game
Focusing on the Correct Moves
We have now reviewed all the moves and their consequences. Now let’s go back and see what I should have done.
My opponent played Qd6, which is part of a defense called the Scandinavian Defense: Mieses-Kotrč, Gubinsky-Melts Defense. I used Stockfish to play out the correct continuations for several moves, but to be honest, it wasn’t very enjoyable for me. If you're interested, you can watch the video here.
In move 3, I should have played Nf3. I didn’t know why at first, but Stockfish’s plan is to play for central control with d4. If my opponent doesn’t respond correctly, pushing d5 creates significant problems for them.
In move 5, instead of playing g4, attacking the bishop, I should have played Qf3. Here’s an illustration of what would happen.
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| Qf3 was the accurate move for white. |
On move 7, I should have developed my dark-squared bishop to g2 rather than playing Bg5. This would have helped me control the e4 and d5 squares and attacked the b7 pawn.
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| Bg2 was the accurate move for white. |
On move 12, instead of Qd3, I should have played Qe2. To understand why I followed the same process I mentioned earlier and asked Stockfish for its reasoning. It recommended castling long, prioritizing my king’s safety.
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| Wrong Move (Qd3) |
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| Correct Move (Qe2) |
Lessons Learned from the Game
How I Can Spot My Mistakes?
Since my opponent was as inexperienced as I was, I didn’t learn much from their play. Instead, I will focus on my own mistakes.
My opponent played the black pieces and brought their queen out too early. Stockfish consistently suggested that I develop a specific structure when faced with early queen moves by black.
If Black brings out their queen early, you should aim to develop like this As I mentioned earlier, if I don’t understand why Stockfish is suggesting a move, I have the opponent make a waiting move (like advancing a pawn). Then, I analyze the suggested move. This process helps me figure out Stockfish's plan.
Every move I make should have a purpose. For example, my a3 pawn move was unnecessary. I should have had different priorities.
I should only form a plan after completing my development. Making premature and weak attacks, like pushing g4, hurt my position. I’m not yet capable of calculating deep combinations like a grandmaster, so I should focus on solid development.
One of my biggest weaknesses is my lack of understanding of pawn structures and king safety.
I use Lichess to play chess and analyze my games. I’ll go into more detail on how to use Lichess efficiently in another article. Thanks for joining me in this one, and see you in the next!
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