Beginner analyzing game to detect blunders

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kit1197

Jan 6, 2022

I'm a relative beginner (probably around 800) and I keep hearing how important it is to analyze games that I play. I want to do that but feel lost. I hear that it isn't a good idea to use engines, but how else would I detect my blunders? A chess engine might say I blundered where I missed some tactic I know nothing about. At my level, I'm hanging pieces a lot and missing where my opponent is probably doing the same thing.

I don't want to rely on an engine and I don't want to passively click through the moves. I just don't know what to look for or how to recognize when I've made an error. When using the Lichess analysis on a game, it showed me blunders and arrows that indicated what the best move would have been. A couple of times I saw why what I did was a mistake, yet did not understand why the suggested move was so much better than an alternative I'd have come up with instead.

This is my first time posting here as I just discovered this forum. Thanks for reading this and for what advice anyone can offer about this.

Monique from Ottawa, Canada

AtaChess68

Jan 6, 2022

I can tell you what I do (but I think some people disagree with my method).

I use the engine to check which moves lead to a drop of more then 3.00. Then I study this move without the engine.
- why does the eval bar drops?
- what was I thinking and what should I have been thinking?
- is it an incident or is there a pattern?

This way I neglect all the subtle engine advices (because most of the time they are over my head). I only use the engine to pick positions I am gonna study.

kit1197

Jan 13, 2022

I can see why it's best just to identify blunders. I have no real clue what I'm doing so I couldn't really identify what I was thinking. I've not played enough games to identify any patterns yet. I suspect most of my blunders are hanging pieces.

AtaChess68

Jan 14, 2022

Well there you have it. You suspect a pattern, hanging pieces. Now check your future games for that pattern. I think that is very useful level 800 analysis. Nothing more needed (and no engine needed too).

chesslearning

Jan 14, 2022

I don't see anything wrong with using an engine. Analyze the game yourself first, then use an engine. A hanging piece blunder should be apparent using an engine by looking at the engine's best move (or moves) for the opponent right after your blunder. The opponent might miss your hanging piece, but the engine won't. It's not always easy to know why the engine downrated your move, but hanging pieces and tactical blunders should be clear. If you follow the engine moves right after your blunder, there should be a clear change... either a loss of material or checkmate threat.

It could be that the blunder only becomes fully apparent after 3-4 moves... not right on the next move.

kit1197

Jan 18, 2022

I mostly use Lichess since I really like their study feature--not to mention that everything there is free. I used this study feature to analyze a blitz game without an engine. It was probably overkill. Here is a link. Hopefully you'll be able to view it.

https://lichess.org/study/9VCfwRIe

My next step with this game will be to run it through the engine with the option to see best move turned off, to see which moves have blunders and comment on those. What was my mistake? What would have been a better move.

hrarray

Jan 20, 2022

Maybe look at the engine lines to see what is wrong with your move

RSK_THE_RAISTER