The Truth About Game Review

ladies and gentlemen we all want to get better at the game of chess but it's not always clear what's the best way to do that you could watch YouTube shorts of opening traps and go try to use them you can try to play against bots maybe you study end games maybe you play a lot of Blitz or do a lot of puzzles or maybe you watch a guy who is rapidly balding and wears many tank tops on YouTube for advice well in today's video I will show you what I think is one of the most important skills and it's going to apply to you if you're 400 ELO 1500 ELO 2500 ELO or even above and that is the art of analyzing your own games I'm going to play a Blitz game or two I'm gonna narrate my thoughts to you and then I'm going to hit game review and I'm actually going to show you how to get into the details of every single move that you play using game review or just using self analysis that's all I gotta say I hope you enjoyed today's video do let me know if uh if you do because I could do some more like this in the future um now I'm going to boot up a game I'm gonna try to obviously talk about my moves and of course you are not 2700 2800 you don't have to worry about necessarily playing some of the the people uh who I have to play against you might be playing your own demons you have to play 1500s 800s 300s I don't know what your ELO is in chess uh but I would imagine you know you've got to uh you've got to play some strong people I hope I get a game soon because if this lasts much longer then I'm probably gonna have to make some sort of edit and there we go we have a game we're playing actually somebody from Indonesia um uh my opponent plays D4 I'm gonna play a Dutch defense so the first stage of any chess game that you play is obviously where the opening ends my opponent plays Knight F6 uh Bishop G5 so I I said my opponent plays Knight to fix because I was about to go Knight F6 um of course they could take which is probably their idea I'm gonna do this and already we have a bishop for a night trade let me play uh Pawn to D5 I would imagine the move C4 is coming and um yeah there's a lot of ways that black can play this position I'll put my Bishop out oh H4 is very very aggressive let's try to uh counter attack in the center with C5 and we're just gonna be you know we're just gonna be playing chess that's like what what a person does right they they make Split Second decisions whether you're playing a 10 minute game or a five minute game or a 15 minute game uh you you know you try to play quickly you try to play accurately you try to make good decisions but then after the game uh that is when um that is when the analysis comes in handy so I'm gonna Castle uh or you know yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna Castle Queen side I don't actually care if I lose this game I would rather show you how to analyze your games uh in a more responsible and organized way okay that's kind of my goal so I I might play a few moves that are a little bit more aggressive and just sort of like show you how to analyze the game after it concludes I expect they might take and put an I don't F4 also I have a lot of development here and I'm kind of ready to move my Jeep on uh I don't think I want to trade I don't want to trade Knight takes D5 might be the loss of a pawn by the way but maybe not because I have like tricks but maybe I don't have any tricks maybe I do have tricks I'm going to take on D4 I can take on D5 and maybe give a discover check so for example discovered attack so if here I'm gonna take take Bishop B4 check and then I'm gonna win the queen if this the king is open I can also maybe play Knight takes and do the exact same thing uh my queen is hanging I have to go here I didn't have anything else we'll probably have a trade and maybe this but then I can actually do this anyway which is very funny because after take take I have Bishop before and I'm gonna be winning the queen uh the the queen in the center so it looks like I have won the the Tactical battle here in the opening and I have a good time Advantage uh clock is not really something that you can uh utilize like in analysis I don't know if people are you know I don't know if the Bots are going to do a fair job there uh giving you coaching with uh with clocks I really want to play Bishop H2 check let's go here let's sneak through so now neither one of these pawns can take me my Pawn has kind of made it through and it's two squares away from queening uh this doesn't quite work now because it would just be a fair trade I can still do it maybe I don't know if it's the best move I also do like Knight to E5 and then Queen would come here and then maybe F5 let's do that let's go Knight E5 attacking the queen oh that's not a bad move maybe I block or do I trade Queens I'll trade queens and um maybe G6 that might lose a pawn but at least I'm opening up the king and my opponent's doing a nice job here catching up on time again this is how chess works right like your opponent plays good moves they don't always play Bad moves and it's it's up to you too prove that you have an advantage I expect this I still have a 20 second time Advantage which I do think is important but all of a sudden that might happen and the advantage could disappear all right Pawn's just going you know Pawn is just trying he's trying to make it through the entirety of my position I don't know if he's going to be able to do that but I still have a Time Advantage but it's not as healthy anymore and obviously you know as as time gets lower uh in a chess game the quality of your play is gonna go down that's just natural nothing you can really do about that so when we go to the game analysis feature which will happen in a moment uh we have to we have to analyze the game in the right way in the meantime prepare yourselves for a massive time scramble which could end in a very messy way we will do our best for it to not end in a very messy way but no guarantees he only has 30 seconds right so that's that is definitely a positive um I'm trying to like anchor in my Bishop I am a little concerned about where this is but not insanely concerned I think I'm winning this Pawn that's not what I really expected to happen but I'm suddenly winning this Pawn take take E6 and uh yikes wait oh oh he went that way man who's better in this end game and why no no he does have 15 seconds which makes my life a little bit easier um but of course I I don't really want it to oh that's very tricky if I take there's this wow and I don't think I'm just on a pawn I mean I'm gonna say I don't think it's a good decision to trade down in the king and pawn end game and uh it's definitely not a good decision let's bring the bishop back now if you want to win this game on time you have to make sure that you don't trade you do this in a way where okay yeah in all likelihood this is simply going to be a draw but I have chances so maybe trick him somehow he's trying to block I have one second on the clock wait did I find a way maybe yes I did yes wow okay so that was obviously that was really bad right um that was just not no that that was that was a very messy game of chess um now out of respect for my opponent I think I'm just uh actually listen I hope my opponent doesn't feel disrespected um let's analyze that game let's say that was a game that you just played right what was the summary of that game how do we actually get better uh from a game like that this is what you do right so you go over to your page you know you uh you refresh you find the game um and then you gotta analyze it right so you can analyze it you can hit game review uh and uh you can do it on your own um you know this thing is going to spit out a couple of things and and I and I I do think it is very important to dive a little bit deeper into all this stuff so the accuracy is fine right obviously we both played horribly in the end game um which one of these actually looks maybe even similar to yours right um chess.com thinks it was a game played between 25 50 2700 listen I'll I'll take it right I'll take it um and you go through a game like this right and chess.com is gonna say things are a book move up to a certain point that's number one you're gonna have a handful of moves that are book moves until a certain point and the opening that I played is the Dutch defense so the evaluation is a little bit higher by default in certain openings like 0.4.5 0.4.5 is kind of meaningless for most levels of the game uh but uh for this level of the game um excuse me and like you know at this level of the game point 4.5 could could be something um but everything is book right this is going to tell you that it's Book for a while I played the move D5 last book move and now you can use openings here and it kind of shows you White's most common approaches like Knight to C3 or Pawn to C4 what did my opponent play in this game he played Bishop D3 and and like very quickly we were just out of known territory so that's kind of the first checkpoint right and we look here and uh Bishop D3 is good you know excellent important to get your pieces off their starting squares H4 is a is a fine move um when you look at game analysis everything here you can also analyze on your own Knight to E2 Knight to D2 C3 when in the opening the evaluation is this close to each other the computer doesn't actually have a tangible evaluation there is nothing forcing whatsoever uh so the position is more or less okay now where the computer gave me an inaccuracy was this right you missed an opportunity to develop a queen off its starting Square okay that's very interesting so we can go here and the computer thinks that I should just play Queen D7 um now how do you I like I like why is Queen D7 the best move is there some deep meaning this is the hard part about about game review and just in general analyzing your own games it's not it's not a thing about game review it's just right you have to try to understand like why this first you have to think is there a threat like is there something winning no it's all equal it's a matter of that C5 is probably just an inaccurate developing move why well according to the computer even taking here leaves me with an isolated Pawn so that right there is a reason for me not to play like this because I'm just giving my opponent an opportunity in the future to plant two nights there and I'm giving myself an isolated Pawn as a result of the early opening exchange what I should be doing here is I should not be playing the move C5 I should be playing like this I should be developing my pieces and trying to Castle rather than trying to expand in the center of the board with the move C5 the move C5 is inaccurate according to the machine um game review also gives my opponents move C3 about this overlooks an opportunity to develop a night off at starting Square this permits the opponent to kick a bishop show moves right so the computer thinks that me taking space is the right decision now as a result of that move and then I can probably play Queen B6 and Target the pawner in the future I can even potentially get a pawn Avalanche going here I can build behind my inaccuracy because my opponent did not take advantage of my inaccuracy okay um what actually happened in the game I played uh I played uh Knight C6 is an inaccuracy right you missed an opportunity to kick a bishop it's not that kicking the bishop itself is some sort of winning move that that is not what is being proven here what is being shown here is I missed an opportunity to kick a bishop is a little bit of a simplified version but essentially I'm trying to make progress in the position and take space when I play the move Knight C6 which is also called an inaccuracy I re-allow the top computer line do you see this I re-allow this that is really why the move C4 is necessary it's not just that I am kicking the bishop it's the fact that I am now disallowing this move to be played and I can build behind all of that by playing Knight C6 I re-allow Ponte C5 now Queen F3 is deemed an inaccuracy because well let's take a look this is not the right idea that's all that we're given and it's true my opponent if we go back to the move Knight you know Knight C6 the opponent's idea here should be taking like this and putting a knight in the center a very well supported Knight with both pawns on dark squares I have no pawns to attack it Queen F3 is incorrect and what we're gonna see in this game is the computer evaluation goes down my opponent doesn't have an easy follow-up they try to develop the Knight behind the the queen move on F3 uh but I just go here and there's no threats like the opponent doesn't have any threats in this position you might say well what about going back to this plan yeah but now 95 is fatal Knight E5 is absolutely fatal yes Bishop C5 but because you put your pieces on such kind of unorthodox squares now I can very quickly take advantage um so I played castles my opponent went H5 which is considered best but you'll notice that now if anybody has an advantage after Bishop D6 it's black and here we get our first blunder of the game which is Knight F4 and the evaluation goes down considerably in my favor this threatens to reveal an attack on a pawn what this threatens to reveal an attack on a pawn I suppose this is the idea right Knight takes and then here reveal so the threat of this move is this and now I played Bishop F7 you are threatening to kick a knight there was only one good move you overlooked an opportunity to capture a knight that was threatening to win material so Bishop F4 was the right idea but then you say but why but why is that the right idea oh because of G5 utilizing the new position of the queen and then if ompason and all of this well now it's actually black who is arriving very quickly to inconvenience white so how do you summarize that how do you summarize what just happened right well it's not that I missed Bishop takes F4 it's I missed the follow-up of Queen F4 G5 and by the way even if no on passant the point is that I took space I took space and now according to the computer I have Rook G8 I have a four I have all these different ideas and I have a slightly better position I played Bishop F7 and now white has a pleasant position again my opponent took on D5 Knight takes D5 is a Miss why is it characterized as a Miss according to game review um what what did the computer say instead apparently I had some uh well that happened actually literally everything that we're seeing is about to happen so Bishop takes out five Bishop E6 this blocks an attack this was all normal and now D3 is a mistake you missed an opportunity to win a Tempo by threatening a queen so what I should have done is probably played 95 which is what I played in the game but I played it a little bit later a computer thinks that this now sometimes game review uh thinks that a certain move is like really really good uh but it thinks something else is uh is is considered like a mistake like the move D3 because it just gives a slight advantage to the opponent right so D3 is considered inaccurate if and only if my opponent plays C4 anchoring the Knight and preparing Knight C3 I miss that so D3 is a bad move if and only if the move C4 and Knight C3 get played according to the eval but that's it only if that and if you're 700 and that's what it says it's you know technically it's right like D3 is a mistake technically in this position the move D3 is a mistake but practically speaking the if you know if my 2600 opponent didn't find C4 instead went here you know and didn't and didn't play the best move then then there's probably nothing wrong with the move so in the game I said Bishop H2 is not what I wanted although it's a completely reasonable move I played 95 Queen H3 and taking the queen doubling the pawns is actually a bad move and let's see what the computer says about that it says you missed an opportunity to block an attack yeah so the computer it's not about blocking the attack on my queen it's more that the queen trade there is not the right decision so you have to say why does the computer want F5 why is that the top engine move and then you got to take away the reasoning well it's because the queen trade was bad it's because this queen trade I thought was good for me it's not good for me okay it's it's not what the computer wants and then I play G6 you permitted the opponent to create a pass Pawn this this is very clearly a mistake and it's a mistake because I just thought that this was not so scary but as it turns out you know after all of this my opponent now in fact has a pass Pawn so the move G6 according to the game review wasn't inaccuracy and now we are seeing why what you know what pass Pawn did was created it was this one so I I blundered upon it it's not even that I blundered upon I mean I got it back but now this right and now we have more or less normal stuff F5 is good this kicks an opposing Knight this time for you to get out of trouble excellent move my opponent is now building an advantage look at this plus two all right now not the best move but not bad either right and now my opponent is just slowly building behind the F Pawn all right and this goes on for a while like the shuffling back and forth H4 this isn't a mistake but there was something better what was what was better uh instead of H4 according to the computer I could have played uh rookie six but then you dig a little deeper and okay rookie six and H4 according to this are about the same but according to game review um you know it says plus two and the reason for that if you go into your settings is that game review might run at a different depth my browser stockfish goes to a 22 depth and this is a 20 depth because that's you know so just because it's a little different it always necessarily uh so black and white no pun intended you know H4 Rook f8 was not a good move but I was doing my best and uh and and this is sort of the process this is the delicate process my opponent Advanced E5 is a Miss threatens to kick a rook there was only one good move there this misses an opportunity to win a bishop where was the opportunity to win a bishop uh uh maybe Knight E5 maybe 95 is the idea so the point is that after take take I cannot take the pawn because after this exchange there's rookie eight but then after the end there you know there might be Rook F2 so uh this is the way you you handle the game review in in in in your own games and obviously as we get into the end game and all of this happens uh it was still my opponent trying to play this for a win let's see what the what it says in the end game this move doesn't hurt you much but it doesn't help either okay Knight F3 this game was close to balance but now you're in a worse position okay so what is the best move here after Knight F3 okay what is the best move after Knight F3 I played Bishop E7 I apparently should have played this and ran to get these pawns and if something like B3 I can attack the pawn and if something like this I can even create problems now obviously the game review is gonna have a bit of an aneurysm as we're moving through here because we both had very little time you ignored an opportunity that threatened a winning Pawn to threaten winning a pawn uh move a piece to safety and this sort of got you know you had a chance to reach a more equal position here you only had one good move in that position what was my good move it was King here you know and this is the delicate process of analyzing one of your games uh with a game review and obviously when there's eight seconds on the clock the game review is gonna you know it's still it's still analyzing the moves themselves it's not actually analyzing the fact that there was two seconds one day it might be smart enough to be like well yeah low time so it's not a big deal um and obviously the quality of play will go down but that is the way you do it every single time you play a game you need to come away with these moments like why is C5 and C4 here considered to be good for black all right and then you try to dig around like what is the follow-up right like okay I see like Knight C6 you know it's just it's just a matter of transforming the position the wrong way right that's what it comes down to when game review tells you you miss a chance to attack a bishop it's not telling you you you're gonna get the bishop sometimes right and it's important to use a combination of the analysis tool and find those top moves and and kind of dig a little bit deeper and do all of this not just for this thing to sit here and go other so you know you you could have gotten a piece off of starting square like okay but what is the real reason behind the move C5 being inaccurate it's the fact that black needs to develop in Castle and that's what the engine will show you Knight C6 Knight D2 look Queen D7 like Queen E2 oh oh like one of the top computer moves here is just a castle and it's just it I'm trying to get you all to understand hopefully all your games are not just oh I hung four pieces so in the next game that I play I'm gonna hang two right it's a matter of you hit game review it tells you all of these things and it's important to understand what exactly was wrong with the move yes you can hit best and yes you can hit show moves but toggle back do a little bit of a deep dive and try to understand if there's only one move of advantage for the other side you didn't always make a mistake if you missed a one move tactic like I gave you an example a little bit earlier um if it if if in one of these early positions like let's say here your opponent does this you know and you don't and in the game you do this but you miss Knight E5 that's a one mover but chess is more than that that's what I'm trying to nail home here that's the way to use game review yes I can tell you you're brilliant and you're so smart you're so clever um but there is uh there is more to it uh than that so uh and obviously you know we we can we can keep doing this let me know if you want me to uh do this in a future video uh with a couple of subscriber games uh I figured I would just show you the process of playing a game having thoughts about it and then putting it into game review and going back and forth and and uncovering all the little intricate details of why a move is considered inaccurate or the the difference between the game review and the analysis and the browser and so on and so forth um hope you enjoyed now get out of here

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 517,867

Keywords: gothamchess, gothamchess london, gothamchess caro kann, gothamchess openings, gothamchess vienna

Id: 9Ov93YjTZ70

Length: 23min 23sec (1403 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 21 2023