Chess game analysis

Game analysis is one of the most powerful tools you have for improving at chess. Why? Because it forces you to connect everything: the opening, the plan in the middlegame, the tactics, and the endgame. Not as separate concepts, but as a single story.

When you review your own games — or those of the great masters — you start to see the game differently. You stop playing isolated moves and start playing with a plan.

Key article

• How to analyze a chess game without getting lost

Famous annotated games

The great masterpieces of history, move by move on an interactive board. The best school there is:

• The Opera Game — Morphy, 1858
• The Immortal Game — Anderssen, 1851
• The Evergreen Game — Anderssen, 1852
• Bobby Fischer’s best games
• Garry Kasparov’s best games
• Magnus Carlsen’s best games

Related pieces and resources

• Sacrifice in chess
• Morphy’s mate
• Opera mate
• Italian Game
• Sicilian Defense
• PGN and FEN viewer

The underlying idea

I don’t want this section to be a showcase of pretty moves. I want it to be a toolbox so you can look at any game more sharply: a classic one, one of your own, or one from a tournament you’re following.

That’s why I use Stockfish and other engines to help: not so the engine tells you what to do, but so you understand why a move is good or bad.

If you don’t yet master algebraic notation, start there. With that, you can follow any analysis in this section without getting lost.