Study Session and My Game Review Table
This is the “off week” so just a few quick notes.
Our next group study session is Saturday 5/8. This one will be more geared towards beginning players and we’ll be going over games by the Polgar sisters early in their career.
My Game Review Table
When I tweeted a screenshot of the Notion table I use to track and review my blitz games, I was surprised how much interest it got.
Notion is a productivity app. If you want a quick intro on how it works, this Thomas Frank video is a good starting point. It has a lot of advanced features, but for now my games table is basically a glorified spreadsheet. You could do much the same thing in Excel, Google Drive, etc.
Currently I fill in the row for each game immediately after I play it. I experimented with batching game review before or after playing a session, but I found that I’m most motivated to review immediately after each game. I’ve also found that pausing to enter the game information helps me avoid that internet blitz doom spiral that a lot of players struggle with. Reviewing the game and taking a few notes helps me be curious about what happened in the game and where I could improve. The only exception is if my opponent wants a rematch, I’ll always except at least one more game. I think this is just good etiquette. If a strong GM wants to keep playing, I’ll usually keep playing until they quit (this is a good opportunity for me), then review all the games from the match.
I think most of the columns are pretty self-explanatory, but the Tags column deserves a little more attention. It started with four categories, which I took to be the main causes of losing in blitz:
Time Trouble
Opening Fail
Didn’t Know Plan
Missed Tactic
As I continued playing and adding to the table, I started adding more tags. In general these were themes that seemed to be coming up repeatedly and I wanted to track. For example, I noticed that I had many games where I could have won by pushing a passed pawn, but missed the opportunity. The value of the table is in noticing patterns so you can address them. The fun part is coming up with creative ways to train problem areas. I’m going to make a lichess study of all the winning passed positions I messed up and practice them against the computer until I can convert them confidently.
One thing that stands out about this table is that, apart from Tags and Notes, every column could be filled out from the game data. Given that, is it really worth copying all the information over? For me I think it is, because the two columns I fill out by hand help me create a narrative around what’s going on with my game in the big picture and what I’m doing to improve. Maybe I can even automate copying the basic game data to Notion.
Do you use a system to review your games? What does it look like?
Interesting idea, how to pump your rating also has an elaborate checking scheme.
I merge 1 month into 1 game and go over the opening, seems to save time compared to directly after it's played and makes sure I check all the games.
I use fritz blunder analysis to extract tactics and positional mistakes (+1.5) out of every 100 games and train them on Chessable. It isn't very user friendly and a lot of work, but gets into specific patterns I miss.