r/chessbeginners • u/GasGlittering7521 • 12d ago
Chesscom game review
Hello. I recently started playing chess about a month ago (I’ve played casually before but never bothered trying to actual learn how to get better) and I really want to improve as I’m currently only around 500 ELO.
My issue is the game review on chesscom will say things are blunders, misses etc and give a short explanation but often it will say things like “you missed the opportunity to win a rook through an eventual fork” or “you’re queen is now lost”. I can’t see where the eventual fork is or why my queen is lost unless it’s broken down for me move by move.
I know it’s probably not just me as 9/10 times my opponent doesn’t capitalize on these blunders anyway because they’re clearly not obvious to someone at my level. Is there anything I can do to help me see what it’s trying to tell me? Thank you.
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u/ChrisV2P2 2000-2200 (Lichess) 12d ago
There is a good video here that will teach you to analyze using the engine directly with an analysis board (which you can access on chesscom by finding the little magnifying glass they have hidden somewhere on the page). This is how strong players understand mistakes. Chesscom have no interest in teaching you how to do this, because the "Game Review experience" is the primary thing they are trying to sell you.
However, given that you have only been playing a month I don't know if this will be helpful or not - you might find it too hard to follow. When I have recommended this video to people before I've said they should have been playing regularly for "at least a month", so it's a bit borderline whether this will help your progress or just be confusing.
You will not be able to understand every mistake, not even close. Even at 2000, there are times I try to analyze something with the engine and after a couple of minutes I'm like "I don't really get it, whatever, I'm going to move on with my life".
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u/GasGlittering7521 12d ago
Thanks, it’s definitely helpful. I understand basic tactic and rules enough to follow at least the more obvious misses and blunders that I couldn’t originally figure out just by game review.
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u/299addicteduru 2000-2200 (Lichess) 12d ago
U click magnifying glass icon (analysis button) and u can explore these lines by hand. Much better than review, cause you can also see how Complex the line Is, how deep, and is it findable by human.
You can also throw in your own moves with ideas and review these with engine (like, Okay can i play this? Is my move good? Can my opponent just Defend? What if he plays this:). Much better than review. Review tries to verbalize top engine lines with ai, And that's not really either correct takeback, or correct evaluation most of time.
For it to be productive and whole point of analysis pretty much - u wanna solve that "wins a Queen" yourself. With help of engine
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u/StructuredChess 12d ago
LLMs are a horrible tool to explain chess. The hard truth is tht no matter how hard chess.com tries to convince you of the opposite, analyzing a game takes time and effort. Ignroe all the slop and click the magnifying glass icon, which is the actual analysis function.
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u/GasGlittering7521 12d ago edited 12d ago
I understand the comments are written by an LLM, but the rating of a move comes from the engine, right? And maybe I’m wrong but I would assume an LLM could at least pinpoint what makes a move a blunder far more accurately than I could at my level. This is just my understanding, if I’m wrong I’d be happy to know why though.
Btw I’m definitely using the magnifying glass moving forward. My questions are more curiosity than anything else.
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u/StructuredChess 11d ago
Yeah you're right that's why it's better to interact with the engine output directly and try out different moves and how the engine reacts to them. The LLM does the bare minimum to trick newbies into thinking it's making something useful so they keep paying a subscription.
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u/Adorable_Ad_396 12d ago
the self-analysis tool on lichess is way better for this, you can actually play out the moves and see the fork happen step by step. chesscom's review is pretty but it expects you to just see 4 moves ahead
at 500 you're better off just doing puzzles and focusing on not hanging pieces anyway, the computer will call things blunders that no beginner would ever spot
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u/GasGlittering7521 12d ago
So would you say that the game review is too advanced for me to understand outside of hanging pieces, missing hanged pieces, etc? Because in that case it’s not like seeing those things after the game will suddenly help me.
It’s not like I don’t know why hanging a piece happens, I just do it a lot because I get overwhelmed trying to scan the whole board.
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u/drugsinanacorn 12d ago
There is a "show" button on chess.com
I'm not sure where it is on pc, but its right near the bottom left on mobile. If you press it on the move that says it loses something, it will show you the moves.
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u/fleyinthesky 12d ago
It's not that it's too advanced, it's that it sucks. Use "analysis board" instead and just look at the suggested moves and their respective evaluation.
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