The game analysis protocol

Student first, coach second, engine last — and every important mistake becomes training material.

Analysing one’s own games is the single most effective training habit, and the one most often done badly: open the engine, look at the red moves, move on. The engine shows what went wrong; only the student’s own analysis shows why.

Protocol

1. Straight after the game (or the same day): the student writes down the critical moments and what they were thinking, before checking anything.
2. The student annotates the game without an engine: opening, the turning point, the main mistakes.
3. Coach and student go through it together. The coach asks questions rather than giving answers.
4. Only then the engine: compare the evaluations at the critical moments. Was the mistake tactical, strategic, time-related or psychological?
5. Classify every serious mistake and turn it into training — the app adds each mistake to the student’s review deck automatically.

Mistake classification

• Blind spot: did not see the opponent’s threat (→ thinking routine, blunder check).
• Calculation error: saw the idea but mis-calculated (→ calculation training).
• Knowledge gap: did not know the plan or the endgame (→ lesson on the topic).
• Evaluation error: chose the wrong kind of position (→ strategy, model games).
• Time trouble or nerves (→ time management, competition routine).

Track the classification over a season. If half the losses come from one category, that category is next month’s curriculum, whatever the syllabus says.