Analysis

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Overview

Lichess provides powerful, free game analysis tools that rival expensive commercial software. Using Stockfish (the strongest open-source chess engine), you can deeply analyze any game, explore openings, find improvements, and understand your mistakes.

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Analysis Board

The analysis board is your primary tool for chess study:

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Accessing Analysis

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Analysis Interface

Main Components:

• Interactive board: Make moves, add variations, explore lines
• Move list: Complete game notation with annotations
• Engine panel: Computer evaluation and recommended moves
• Evaluation graph: Visual representation of position assessment
• Opening explorer: Statistics from opening database
• Tablebase: Perfect endgame play (7 pieces or fewer)

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Computer Analysis

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Requesting Analysis

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What Analysis Provides

Move Classifications

Every move is automatically classified:

• Brilliant !! - Exceptional, hard-to-find move
• Great ! - Strong move, often the best
• Best move - Engine’s top choice
• Good - Reasonable move maintaining position
• Inaccuracy ?! - Suboptimal but not critical
• Mistake ? - Significant error losing advantage
• Blunder ?? - Major mistake, likely game-losing

Accuracy Percentage

Overall game performance metric:

• Based on how closely your moves matched engine recommendations
• Weighted by position difficulty
• Calculated separately for each player
• 90%+ = Excellent, 80-90% = Good, 70-80% = Average, below 70% = Poor
• Useful for tracking improvement over time

Average Centipawn Loss

Statistical measure of accuracy:

• Average evaluation loss per move
• Lower is better (0 = perfect play)
• ACPL < 10 = Very strong
• ACPL 10-20 = Strong
• ACPL 20-40 = Average
• ACPL > 40 = Weak

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Analysis Graph

Visual position evaluation:

• Vertical axis: Position evaluation (-10 to +10, or mate)
• Horizontal axis: Move number
• White advantage: Positive (above 0)
• Black advantage: Negative (below 0)
• Sharp changes: Indicate mistakes or brilliant moves
• Click on graph: Jump to that position

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Interactive Analysis

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Making Moves

Explore positions freely:

• Click and drag or click twice to make moves
• Arrow keys: Navigate move list (← → ↑ ↓)
• Mouse wheel: Scroll through moves
• Click on move: Jump to that position
• Home/End keys: Jump to start/end of game

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Adding Variations

Explore alternative lines:

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Deleting Variations

• Right-click on move: Context menu with “Delete” option
• Delete key: Remove highlighted variation
• Clear variations: Remove all variations at once

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Promoting Variations

• Right-click move → “Promote variation”: Make it the mainline
• Useful when you discover a better continuation

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Computer Engine

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Local Engine (Client-side)

Runs in your browser:

• Stockfish - World’s strongest open-source engine
• Multi-PV: Shows multiple top moves simultaneously
• Depth: How deep engine calculates (adjustable)
• Nodes: Positions evaluated
• Speed: Nodes per second (depends on your device)

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Engine Options

• Number of lines: Show 1-5 top moves
• Analysis depth: How deeply to analyze (depth 20-30 typical)
• Hash size: Memory allocation for analysis
• Threads: CPU cores to use

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Understanding Evaluations

Evaluation Format:

• +1.5: White is better by 1.5 pawns
• -0.8: Black is better by 0.8 pawns
• 0.0: Equal position
• M5: Mate in 5 moves for the side to move
• -M3: Opponent has mate in 3 moves

General Guidelines:

• 0.0 to ±0.2: Dead equal
• ±0.2 to ±0.5: Slight edge
• ±0.5 to ±1.5: Clear advantage
• ±1.5 to ±3.0: Significant advantage
• ±3.0+: Winning advantage

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Opening Explorer

Explore opening databases:

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Database Options

Lichess Database

Millions of games from Lichess:

• Filter by rating range (1600+, 2000+, 2200+, 2500+)
• Filter by time control (Bullet, Blitz, Rapid, Classical)
• Shows move popularity and results
• Updated regularly with new games
• Most comprehensive database for online chess

Masters Database

High-level OTB games:

• Games from players rated 2200+ FIDE
• Historical games back to 1952
• Includes classical World Championship games
• Ideal for learning “proper” openings
• About 2.6 million games

Player Database

Specific player’s games:

• Search any Lichess player
• See their opening repertoire
• Prepare against specific opponents
• Study your own openings
• Identify patterns and weaknesses

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Explorer Information

For each move, see:

• Frequency: How often it’s played
• Results: Win/Draw/Loss statistics
• Average rating: Typical player strength
• Example games: Click to see full games
• Move graph: Visual comparison of popularity

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Explorer Use Cases

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Tablebase

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Endgame Perfection

Access perfect endgame play:

• 7-piece tablebase: All positions with ≤7 pieces
• DTZ (Distance to Zero): Moves to capture/pawn move
• Optimal play: Computer-perfect moves
• Win/Draw/Loss: Objective evaluation with perfect play
• Longest win: Learn forced winning techniques

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Using Tablebase

1. Reduce to 7 or fewer pieces
2. Tablebase activates automatically
3. Shows “Win in X moves” or “Draw with best play”
4. Follow optimal moves for guaranteed results

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Analysis Tools

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Editor Mode

Modify positions:

• Add/remove pieces: Build custom positions
• Change turn: Who moves first
• Set castling rights: Configure legal castling
• En passant: Set up en passant squares
• Generate FEN: Export position notation

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Flip Board

View from either perspective:

• Click flip icon to reverse orientation
• Useful for seeing opponent’s view

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Practice Against Computer

Test your understanding:

1. Analyze position
2. Click “Practice with computer”
3. Play position against Stockfish
4. See if you can convert advantage

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Share Analysis

Share your work:

• URL updates automatically: Share current position
• GIF export: Create animated game/position GIFs
• PGN download: Export with annotations
• FEN copy: Share specific position
• Embed: Integrate on external websites

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Annotations

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Adding Comments

Annotate positions:

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Glyphs and Symbols

Add standard chess annotations:

• ! Good move
• !! Brilliant
• ? Mistake
• ?? Blunder
• !? Interesting
• ?! Dubious
• ± White is better
• ∓ Black is better
• = Equal

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Visual Annotations

Highlight squares and draw arrows:

• Right-click + drag: Draw arrow
• Right-click square: Circle square
• Color meanings:
  • Green: Good move/square
  • Red: Bad move/square
  • Blue: Alternative
  • Yellow: Key square/attention

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Analysis Features for Your Games

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Learn from Mistakes

After requesting analysis:

1. Review mistakes: Click on ? and ?? moves
2. See best move: Engine shows what you should have played
3. Understand why: Check evaluation change
4. Practice position: Play it against computer to improve

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Track Improvement

Monitor your progress:

• Average accuracy over time
• Common mistake patterns
• Opening phase performance
• Endgame technique
• Time management (from move times)

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Identify Patterns

Find recurring issues:

• Missing tactics
• Time trouble mistakes
• Opening preparation gaps
• Endgame weaknesses
• Calculation errors

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Analysing Analysable Games

Not all games can be analyzed: Analysable games:

• At least 5 plies (moves) played
• Standard chess or certain variants
• Not old Horde games (before April 2015)

Variants with analysis support:

• Standard, Chess960, Crazyhouse, King of the Hill
• Three-check, Antichess, Atomic, Horde, Racing Kings

No analysis:

• Very short games (< 5 moves)
• Some exotic variants
• Correspondence games still in progress

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Cloud Analysis

Community-powered deep analysis:

• Deeper than standard server analysis
• Contributed by users running analysis
• Cached and shared for all users
• Shows when available on analysis page

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External Engine Support

Use your own engines:

• Configure external UCI engines
• Connect local Stockfish or other engines
• More control over analysis parameters
• Useful for advanced users

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Analysis Tips

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Related Features