How do I identify my weaknesses?

How do I identify the weakest points in my own play? When reviewing your own games with the intent of improvement, how would you identify your personal weaknesses? I want to improve but I ultimately don’t know what I particularly suck at. If anyone looks at my recent games, ignore most of today because it’s me playing on a tilt streak and my head is foggy. I just desperately want to improve and at this point I don’t know what to do, but I want to work on understanding the things that I don’t.

Chess is so hard. I’m 32, started playing last summer and improving as an adult is a struggle. My account is a little older, but I never actually played until about a year ago.

After the game analyze it and Identify your mistakes, figure out why they're mistakes, remember what you were thinking at the time and what you should have done or thought instead... and you'll know what you need to work on.

The best strat is do focus on your opponent’s pieces and tactics. If they make a random move, then try to spot why they did that and if it’s a trap, move accordingly

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond.....

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

You made it to about 1400 within a year, and that's not bad at all, it's the border between beginner and regular club player, would it be an USCF or FIDE rating.

Your concern is legitimate. You identified that need, and that's an other good thing.

Of course, like others told you already, you need to review each of your games after playing it. I'll add that it is advised to focus on the first major mistake you've made, if you've made any, and try to figure out what you should have played, and also take a mental seat to memorize the mistake and the related cure to it.

By doing so, you'll soon spot mistakes or type of mistakes that happen more often than others.

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Getting a chess database with a good game collection along with downloading an engine like stockfish will help greatly.

When going over my games, the first thing that I'm looking for are moments where there are those obvious mistakes (moves where there is a major swing in the evaluation). Those are typically times where I might have thought of an idea but didn't play it at the right moment, I completely missed the idea, or I made a miscalculation when evaluating the position.

When it comes to the opening, I try to compare what was played in my game to other high level games. In doing so, I could try and find a better way to play the position that I had.

When looking at engine evaluations, I'm mainly focusing on swings that are greater than 1 point in either direction.

@1

"How do I identify the weakest points in my own play?"
++ Analyse your lost games. Look for a pattern. Do you lose in rook endings?
Do you lose by blundering pieces? Do you lose when you are under attack?
Do you overextend when you attack?

"how would you identify your personal weaknesses?" ++ Analyse your lost games.

"I ultimately don’t know what I particularly suck at"
++ Analyse your lost games. You lost, so you made a mistake. Identify your decisive mistake. What was the good move? What candidate moves did you consider?
Did you consider the good move? If no, then why not?
If yes, then why did you prefer to play the decisive mistake instead of it?
How much time did you think on your decisive mistake?
How much time did you have left on your clock before your decisive mistake?

"playing on a tilt streak" ++ Whenever you lose a game, stop playing and analyse it first.

I genuinely appreciate all the feedback. I do review my games but I think my approach to analysis needs work. If I know a few types of positions that I struggle in, how would I work on it? For example, I think I struggle in cramped positions and when my opponent is choking me out slowly. Even when the position is equal, I have a hard time “seeing” what approach to take. Is this something I should improve on somehow? Or do I simply build a repertoire that ensures I don’t get put in these positions? Not that you always have a choice, but you get me. Thanks again.

If you feel that consistently dealing with space advantages isn't something that you enjoy or doesn't fit your playing style, you can look for openings that fit what you are looking for. The issue is that it can still happen in games and is a weakness that can and should be worked on.

As far as middlegame strategy books, "The Amateur's Mind: Turning Chess Misconceptions Into Chess Mastery" by Jeremy Silman might fit what you are looking for. Others might be able to give better input or book suggestions.

@9

"I think my approach to analysis needs work" ++ It is key to improve.

"I struggle in cramped positions and when my opponent is choking me out slowly"
++ Analyse the game. See what you could have done differently.

"Even when the position is equal, I have a hard time seeing what approach to take."
++ Chess is no easy game. Think. Apply logic.

"Is this something I should improve on somehow?"
++ Yes, though blunder prevention and tactics and endgame technique have priority.

"do I simply build a repertoire" ++ No. Play positions as they come and learn how to handle these from your mistakes in your lost games.

I've taken a look at your profile and noticed that you run pretty much any of your game through the chess.com review analysis. While the chess.com analysis are useful, especially since you don't feel like you analyse efficiently, you may try to analyse your games without the engine first. That way, you can try to identify where did it exactly went wrong for you or your opponent in the game, that will pretty much tell you what you should work on. After making your independent observations, then you can run the engine in order to see how many things did you get right with your own analysis.

I've also looked at several of your losses and noticed that most of them were either because of a piece blunder or a blowing counterattack by your opponents. You seem to like attacking chess by following an active play style, trying gambits, pawn storms, opposite side castling etc. While this tend to get you good positions, sometimes you seem to be oblivious or unsuccessful when your opponents generate a counterattack, the positions get messy and it becomes difficult to tell who has the attack going. Therefore maybe working on some defensive chess concepts might be useful.

You mentioned that you don't like cramped positions which makes sense thinking of your active and attacking style. However, sometimes you seem to be the one cramping the position up by trying advance variations in the French and Caro Kann. Playing closed positions in general, pawn breaks and plan making are crucial, that's something you can work on possibly.

You also said that you don't know what approach to take when the position seems to be equal. That might be a sign that you don't know how to develop plans in the middlegame. That is a concept on its own which you may study and improve.

Lastly I want to remind that adult improvement is indeed difficult but you seem to be already doing very well by achieving 1300-1400 in a year, that is more than many people will ever do. Sometimes you get stuck on a rating and that is a natural part of progress. Once you pass the rating you're stuck at, the next 100 elo is likely to feel easier to surpass. Don't lose your motivation, the fact that you're looking for your weaknesses already show that you're on the right track and that is the key.

Some thoughts,

1. Game review is a poor tool for what you are looking for. It will show you tactical errors but will not provide a general explanation.

2. Go over your losses. Try to identify a cause for each loss. You could use very broad categories: tactics versus strategy: or opening versus middle game versus ending; or carelessness, time pressure, or lack of understanding. A higher rated player could use additional and more specific categories.

3. check many of your games for patterns. You can’t find patterns from small samples. Also, if you are a very low-rated player and your losses are almost all due to carelessness, then a more detailed analysis would be meaningless. You have to achieve a basic level of overall competence before you can target higher level skills for improvement.

4. If patterns exist, you will have something to work on.

by the way, a stronger player would be able to point out your weaknesses in a much shorter time than it would take you to do this. So a major recommendation is to play at a club OTB and talk to stronger players in post mortems.

I did this type of self-analysis in both duplicate bridge and in chess. I became a Gold Life Master in bridge and raised my chess rating from about 2100 to 2400. So, improving on your own is possible, but it may take a player who is already fairly accomplished.

I looked at your most recent rapid game. Your opening knowledge could use some work, and just opening principles in general. You may have a bit of an over fondness for trading pieces, but that's fairly common. Good tactical vision, nice job controlling the center. Since the game didn't reach an endgame, I'm not sure whether that is a weakness of yours (though it's quite likely since endgames are the achilles heel of all players not named Magnus). Getting to 1400 in a year is quite impressive for an adult improver, so congratulations.

Again, thanks guys. The feedback has been very instructive and will be put to good use, to the best of my ability.

Over multiple games, patterns will emerge. For example, do you frequently lose material in the opening? Do you struggle in the middlegame with tactics? Are your endgames weak?