Answers.Body: <p><a href="https://lucaschess.pythonanywhere.com/" rel="noreferrer">Lucas Chess</a> is a very good free software I used for several years. It has an intuitive interface and gives in-depth analyses and move recommendations.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-19T08:11:13.310Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-08-19T08:11:13.310Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Klangen
Answers.Body: <p>Stockfish is very strong and free. Lichess.org makes it available under the analysis section. </p>
  
  <p>For my phone I use the droidfish app and with that you can download any engine you want. There are hundreds of freely available engines including stockfish. </p>
  
  <p>In the old days I would download a free version of Fritz and then replace the Fritz engine with the best engine I could find. It seems a little impractical though nowadays. </p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-19T03:14:56.090Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-08-19T03:14:56.090Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Savage47
Answers.Body: <p>My suggestion would be to get your hands on <a href="https://shop.chessbase.com/en/categories/chessbase" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ChessBase</a>. This software allows you to store your games in a structured format, coming back to them whenever you need it, with many options for variations, annotations and comments. Also, many chess books can be read in a very practical way in this format (with the software showing the moves for you on a board)</p>
  
  <p>I would be more hesitant towards the use of a chess engine, though. Game analysis is one of the best ways of training, and leaving it for a computer to do it for you will make you miss that opportunity. I analyse all of my games by putting them into my database, but I do the analysis myself, rather than with Stockfish, Fritz, Komodo or the engine of your choice.</p>
  
  <p>My advice would be to use an engine like Stockfish (it's free!) to correct his analysis, rather than to analyse the games themselves. For the opening moves, checking what's been played in previous high-level games (and what happened next) is often a great idea, too!</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-21T02:01:01.757Z
Answers.Text: I have been using ChessBase since version 1 (it was the reason I bought my first computer), and frankly, while it is a great tool, it is probably overkill for a kid, who is just learning; or for a kid, just to store his games with annotations. In addition, what a player, who is learning needs the most is verbal/written explanations. Integrating an engine like Stockfish certainly is a strong analysis tool, but it doesn't help at all with the explanations.
Answers.UserDisplayName: PhishMaster
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-21T07:30:15.073Z
Answers.Text: @PhishMaster What other game-storage solution would you purpose? By the way, my answer actually agrees with what you say about Stockfish
Answers.UserDisplayName: David
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-22T16:25:22.957Z
Answers.Text: What I am saying is that for a kid, I am not sure it is that important at all. I am not sure how old you are, or if you have kids, but interests often come and go. Before I bought the premier chess database software for a kid, I would not necessarily run out to buy it until they were at least 1400.
  
  In addition, storing games was not the original question. While there is no doubt it is a great product, it does not explain moves well at all, in my opinion.
Answers.UserDisplayName: PhishMaster
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-19T08:44:47.720Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-09-22T18:57:28.420Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2019-09-22T18:57:28.420Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: David
Answers.Body: <p>You can get a good free PGN Viewer app from </p>
  
  <p><a href="https://pgnchessbook.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">PGN ChessBook</a></p>
  
  <p>which comes with the very strong Stockfish analysis engine built in.</p>
  
  <p>The best annotated PGN game collections I could find were also added to my website at</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://pgnchessbook.org/pgn/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Annotated PGN download page</a></p>
  
  <p>It took me several days to find these. There are 950+ annotated games in “.pgn” files and I added every world championship match game ever played.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-19T13:57:07.073Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-08-20T08:36:37.383Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2019-08-20T08:36:37.383Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Norman
Answers.Body: <p>The most feature rich tool for making recommendation I have used is chess-pro app. 
   <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chess-tiger-pro/id423198259" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chess-tiger-pro/id423198259</a></p>
  
  <p>My favorite feature is that you can page through the position in the game where the computer thinks you have made an error.  It also can alert you to threats and has other guidance features. </p>
  
  <p>To learn the most from your games it is important to review them yourself first before analyzing them with a computer.  </p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-20T21:27:15.377Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-08-20T21:27:15.377Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Michael West
Answers.Body: <p>Chessbase is your best bet if your son is serious about playing for years to come. I believe the base version is around $100, but it comes with default (super strong) engines to help analyse. The software also allows you to input your games and save them, allowing you to review them later on.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-21T00:52:38.580Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-08-21T00:52:38.580Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Inertial Ignorance
Answers.Body: <p>Chess.com membership might be an option both in general for this specifically. It has a feature that allows games - whether played on the site or elsewhere - to be analysed. This includes a "retry" feature where the analysis will find weak moves with the challenge of finding a better one. It'll also graph the relevant strength of the position of board as the progress.</p>
  
  <p>Chess.com does have free features and several levels of membership at different costs. It also has various lessons and other features as might be expected.</p>
  
  <p>I've no affiliation other than as a (paid) user. </p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-20T12:14:58.783Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-08-20T12:14:58.783Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Andrew Richards
Answers.Body: <p>I created AiChessCoach.net as a resource for players looking to improve their chess openings, and I think it’s been really helpful for many. It’s a free tool that can analyze your most recent 200, 500, or even 1000 games from Lichess or Chess.com. It gives personalized recommendations for your openings and highlights recurring mistakes, so you can focus on areas that need improvement. If that sounds like something you’d find useful, I’d love for you to check it out and share your thoughts!</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2024-12-17T17:34:15.647Z
Answers.Text: Why the downvote?
Answers.UserDisplayName: Mats Backstrom
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2024-12-16T19:27:01.663Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2024-12-16T19:27:01.663Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Mats Backstrom
Answers.Body: <p>One of the problems with chess-analysis software for weaker players is that it just shows the strongest move per the computer, without any explanation why. There are some programs, like the ChessBase programs that, using their "Tactical Analysis" feature, attempt to give some explanation to the moves, but they are all wanting.</p>
  
  <p>That said, <a href="https://decodechess.com/" rel="noreferrer">decodechess.com</a> seems to do better than most for newbies. As a USCF Master, the explanations are pretty good from what I can see, and the underlying "engine" (program) is Stockfish, which is A LOT stronger than the best humans in history. Although a premium account is $99/year (right now, 50% off with the promo code "DECODESPRING". for the record, I have no affiliation with the site, nor am I a member), you can create an account, and "decode", or analyze three games per day for free. If you like it, I would jump on the promo.</p>
  
  <p>This is not analysis software, but I would also recommend the book "Logical Chess Move by Move". It is a classic, and there is an new algebraic edition for $12.98 on Amazon.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-19T22:27:18.673Z
Answers.Text: Thank you, we just tried decodechess and so far we liked it.
Answers.UserDisplayName: technewbie
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-03-05T00:52:38.420Z
Answers.Text: I wasn't aware that there is a provision to accept the answer. Thank you for the suggestion, my son has been using decodechess for a while now and he understands decodechess analysis better than the other software.
Answers.UserDisplayName: technewbie
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-03-05T01:03:47.057Z
Answers.Text: @technewbie Thank you, and I am glad it is helping him so much.
Answers.UserDisplayName: PhishMaster
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-18T17:11:39.373Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-08-18T18:50:44.923Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2019-08-18T18:50:44.923Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: PhishMaster
Body: <p>My son is into chess and plays chess tournaments. I would like to know what good chess software is available to analyze his games.  The software should analyze move-by-move and should point out weak/strong moves, alternative moves, blunders, tactics etc.
  What do you use for this? I googled, I see lots of options and I don’t know which one is good or bad.
  Thank you.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-08-19T09:55:07.773Z
Comments.Text: My suggestion is not to use them for this purpose. Analyzing a position is one of the basic skills in chess, not to mention analyzing own games improves your game a lot.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Cyriac Antony
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-08-19T12:30:55.127Z
Comments.Text: @CyriacAntony That is true but a lot of chess programs allow you to do a "what if" kind of analysis. You input the game and then by changing a move you introduce a variant for which the engine will tell you how good or bad it is (and of course you can have variants on variants). I still kind of suck at chess, but this type of assisted analysis has helped me increase my rating quite a bit.
Comments.UserDisplayName: ChatterOne
Tags: <analysis><software>
Title: Chess software to analyze games
ThreadText: # Chess software to analyze games
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2019-08-18)
  
  My son is into chess and plays chess tournaments. I would like to know what good chess software is available to analyze his games. The software should analyze move-by-move and should point out weak/strong moves, alternative moves, blunders, tactics etc.
  What do you use for this? I googled, I see lots of options and I don’t know which one is good or bad.
  Thank you.
  
  **Tags:** analysis, software
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: My suggestion is not to use them for this purpose. Analyzing a position is one of the basic skills in chess, not to mention analyzing own games improves your game a lot.  
  > **username_2**: @CyriacAntony That is true but a lot of chess programs allow you to do a "what if" kind of analysis. You input the game and then by changing a move you introduce a variant for which the engine will tell you how good or bad it is (and of course you can have variants on variants). I still kind of suck at chess, but this type of assisted analysis has helped me increase my rating quite a bit.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 9 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2019-08-18. Score: 22 | Accepted answer
  
  One of the problems with chess-analysis software for weaker players is that it just shows the strongest move per the computer, without any explanation why. There are some programs, like the ChessBase programs that, using their "Tactical Analysis" feature, attempt to give some explanation to the moves, but they are all wanting.
  
  That said, [decodechess.com](https://decodechess.com/) seems to do better than most for newbies. As a USCF Master, the explanations are pretty good from what I can see, and the underlying "engine" (program) is Stockfish, which is A LOT stronger than the best humans in history. Although a premium account is $99/year (right now, 50% off with the promo code "DECODESPRING". for the record, I have no affiliation with the site, nor am I a member), you can create an account, and "decode", or analyze three games per day for free. If you like it, I would jump on the promo.
  
  This is not analysis software, but I would also recommend the book "Logical Chess Move by Move". It is a classic, and there is an new algebraic edition for $12.98 on Amazon.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Thank you, we just tried decodechess and so far we liked it.  
  > **username_0**: I wasn't aware that there is a provision to accept the answer. Thank you for the suggestion, my son has been using decodechess for a while now and he understands decodechess analysis better than the other software.  
  > **username_6**: @username_0 Thank you, and I am glad it is helping him so much.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_3 on 2019-08-19. Score: 6
  
  [Lucas Chess](https://lucaschess.pythonanywhere.com/) is a very good free software I used for several years. It has an intuitive interface and gives in-depth analyses and move recommendations.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2019-08-19. Score: 5
  
  Stockfish is very strong and free. Lichess.org makes it available under the analysis section.
  
  For my phone I use the droidfish app and with that you can download any engine you want. There are hundreds of freely available engines including stockfish.
  
  In the old days I would download a free version of Fritz and then replace the Fritz engine with the best engine I could find. It seems a little impractical though nowadays.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2019-08-19. Score: 5
  
  My suggestion would be to get your hands on [ChessBase](https://shop.chessbase.com/en/categories/chessbase). This software allows you to store your games in a structured format, coming back to them whenever you need it, with many options for variations, annotations and comments. Also, many chess books can be read in a very practical way in this format (with the software showing the moves for you on a board)
  
  I would be more hesitant towards the use of a chess engine, though. Game analysis is one of the best ways of training, and leaving it for a computer to do it for you will make you miss that opportunity. I analyse all of my games by putting them into my database, but I do the analysis myself, rather than with Stockfish, Fritz, Komodo or the engine of your choice.
  
  My advice would be to use an engine like Stockfish (it's free!) to correct his analysis, rather than to analyse the games themselves. For the opening moves, checking what's been played in previous high-level games (and what happened next) is often a great idea, too!
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_6**: I have been using ChessBase since version 1 (it was the reason I bought my first computer), and frankly, while it is a great tool, it is probably overkill for a kid, who is just learning; or for a kid, just to store his games with annotations. In addition, what a player, who is learning needs the most is verbal/written explanations. Integrating an engine like Stockfish certainly is a strong analysis tool, but it doesn't help at all with the explanations.  
  > **username_5**: @username_6 What other game-storage solution would you purpose? By the way, my answer actually agrees with what you say about Stockfish  
  > **username_6**: What I am saying is that for a kid, I am not sure it is that important at all. I am not sure how old you are, or if you have kids, but interests often come and go. Before I bought the premier chess database software for a kid, I would not necessarily run out to buy it until they were at least 1400.  In addition, storing games was not the original question. While there is no doubt it is a great product, it does not explain moves well at all, in my opinion.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_7 on 2019-08-19. Score: 3
  
  You can get a good free PGN Viewer app from
  
  [PGN ChessBook](https://pgnchessbook.org/)
  
  which comes with the very strong Stockfish analysis engine built in.
  
  The best annotated PGN game collections I could find were also added to my website at
  
  [Annotated PGN download page](https://pgnchessbook.org/pgn/)
  
  It took me several days to find these. There are 950+ annotated games in “.pgn” files and I added every world championship match game ever played.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_8 on 2019-08-20. Score: 2
  
  The most feature rich tool for making recommendation I have used is chess-pro app.
  <https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chess-tiger-pro/id423198259>
  
  My favorite feature is that you can page through the position in the game where the computer thinks you have made an error. It also can alert you to threats and has other guidance features.
  
  To learn the most from your games it is important to review them yourself first before analyzing them with a computer.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_9 on 2019-08-21. Score: 2
  
  Chessbase is your best bet if your son is serious about playing for years to come. I believe the base version is around $100, but it comes with default (super strong) engines to help analyse. The software also allows you to input your games and save them, allowing you to review them later on.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_10 on 2019-08-20. Score: 2
  
  Chess.com membership might be an option both in general for this specifically. It has a feature that allows games - whether played on the site or elsewhere - to be analysed. This includes a "retry" feature where the analysis will find weak moves with the challenge of finding a better one. It'll also graph the relevant strength of the position of board as the progress.
  
  Chess.com does have free features and several levels of membership at different costs. It also has various lessons and other features as might be expected.
  
  I've no affiliation other than as a (paid) user.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_11 on 2024-12-16. Score: 0
  
  I created AiChessCoach.net as a resource for players looking to improve their chess openings, and I think it’s been really helpful for many. It’s a free tool that can analyze your most recent 200, 500, or even 1000 games from Lichess or Chess.com. It gives personalized recommendations for your openings and highlights recurring mistakes, so you can focus on areas that need improvement. If that sounds like something you’d find useful, I’d love for you to check it out and share your thoughts!
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_11**: Why the downvote?  
  
  ---
  
  