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How To Analyze Your Games: A ChessDojo Guide
“Chess is the art of analysis” - 6th World Chess Champion Mikhail Botvinnik
Game analysis is almost universally recommended by chess coaches worldwide, but when it comes to analyzing one’s own games, many chess players don’t know where to start or what a good annotation even looks like. Others often neglect the task, not wanting to face their mistakes post-mortem.
Aimed at players of all levels, How To Analyze Your Games is a guide to reviewing and annotating one’s chess games, an absolutely crucial task for the development of any ambitious chess player.
The book contains a collection of model game examples from players of every level, along with a straightforward guide to doing your own game analysis. The idea is to provide real examples of what good annotations look like, hopefully bringing inspiration and motivation for readers to begin to do the work themselves.
Featuring students of the Dojo Training Program with ratings ranging from 0-2400, the book is broken up into four parts (0-1000, 1000-1500, 1500-2000, 2000+), with every chapter consisting of five model annotated games of players within a 100-point rating cohort (1100-1200, 1600-1700, etc.) starting from 0-300 and going all the way up to 2400-2500.
The book also contains three instructional chapters, written by Dojo senseis GM Jesse Kraai, IM David Pruess, and IM Kostya
How to Analyze Your Games by GM Jesse KraaiGM Jesse Kraai explains the process of reflecting on and analyzing one’s games.
David’s Advice For A Reluctant Analyst by IM David PruessAdvice for newer players or those who have never analyzed their games before, and are intimidated by the prospect.
Using Engines by IM Kostya KavutskiyA technical breakdown on how to most effectively use computers and chess engines for game analysis.
If you’re a chess player looking to get serious about your game, learning to analyze your games is an absolute must!
Game analysis is almost universally recommended by chess coaches worldwide, but when it comes to analyzing one’s own games, many chess players don’t know where to start or what a good annotation even looks like. Others often neglect the task, not wanting to face their mistakes post-mortem.
Aimed at players of all levels, How To Analyze Your Games is a guide to reviewing and annotating one’s chess games, an absolutely crucial task for the development of any ambitious chess player.
The book contains a collection of model game examples from players of every level, along with a straightforward guide to doing your own game analysis. The idea is to provide real examples of what good annotations look like, hopefully bringing inspiration and motivation for readers to begin to do the work themselves.
Featuring students of the Dojo Training Program with ratings ranging from 0-2400, the book is broken up into four parts (0-1000, 1000-1500, 1500-2000, 2000+), with every chapter consisting of five model annotated games of players within a 100-point rating cohort (1100-1200, 1600-1700, etc.) starting from 0-300 and going all the way up to 2400-2500.
The book also contains three instructional chapters, written by Dojo senseis GM Jesse Kraai, IM David Pruess, and IM Kostya
How to Analyze Your Games by GM Jesse KraaiGM Jesse Kraai explains the process of reflecting on and analyzing one’s games.
David’s Advice For A Reluctant Analyst by IM David PruessAdvice for newer players or those who have never analyzed their games before, and are intimidated by the prospect.
Using Engines by IM Kostya KavutskiyA technical breakdown on how to most effectively use computers and chess engines for game analysis.
If you’re a chess player looking to get serious about your game, learning to analyze your games is an absolute must!
- GenresChess
492 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 12, 2025
14 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 17, 2024
I have ordered my copy and can't wait to get into it. 5 stars in anticipation, pending a proper review :)
December 31, 2024
There is value here for chess players at every level, assuming you actually want to get better at chess.
It's hard to imagine a chess player arguing against analyzing their own games being a tool for improvement. But so few follow through with the process. Like an amateur musician who feels they're past playing their scales - when the pros know you never stop this essential habit.
I'm a member at the ChessDojo Training Program where we focus on improving at classical chess and analyzing our games is the bread-and-butter of our practice. The ~50 pages of essays from the sensei are well-articulated explanations of principles that a gradually understood while participating in the program. The remaining ~500 pages of annotated games from the ChessDojo members represent the expected results of a chess improver. These are not the finest chess games ever played! They are fine examples of annotation you should expect of yourself as your chess performance progresses.
As a print book, this is clearly made by chess players for chess players as opposed to the preferences of a publisher.
1. There are many position diagrams.
Enough diagrams a club player could do well without a board and use the book as both visualization practice in addition to taking in the annotations. In other game collections you're lucky to get one or two diagrams per game and many of these have four or more.
2. The large size of the book allows for a legible font size and it can lay on a table next to a board.
It's not as large a font as Silman's Endgame Course, but even with my poor eyesight it's large enough to be useful
3. It's organized by player rating
More chess books need this. Everyone should read the essays at the front of the book, but after that you can focus on the games around your current rating and hold them up against your own annotations to see if you're truly giving the writing expected of your level. As you improve you can come back to the book and study the higher cohorts' games.
In "Cost Per Elo" I think this book will prove a great value.
It's hard to imagine a chess player arguing against analyzing their own games being a tool for improvement. But so few follow through with the process. Like an amateur musician who feels they're past playing their scales - when the pros know you never stop this essential habit.
I'm a member at the ChessDojo Training Program where we focus on improving at classical chess and analyzing our games is the bread-and-butter of our practice. The ~50 pages of essays from the sensei are well-articulated explanations of principles that a gradually understood while participating in the program. The remaining ~500 pages of annotated games from the ChessDojo members represent the expected results of a chess improver. These are not the finest chess games ever played! They are fine examples of annotation you should expect of yourself as your chess performance progresses.
As a print book, this is clearly made by chess players for chess players as opposed to the preferences of a publisher.
1. There are many position diagrams.
Enough diagrams a club player could do well without a board and use the book as both visualization practice in addition to taking in the annotations. In other game collections you're lucky to get one or two diagrams per game and many of these have four or more.
2. The large size of the book allows for a legible font size and it can lay on a table next to a board.
It's not as large a font as Silman's Endgame Course, but even with my poor eyesight it's large enough to be useful
3. It's organized by player rating
More chess books need this. Everyone should read the essays at the front of the book, but after that you can focus on the games around your current rating and hold them up against your own annotations to see if you're truly giving the writing expected of your level. As you improve you can come back to the book and study the higher cohorts' games.
In "Cost Per Elo" I think this book will prove a great value.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews