Game analysis a-la Noel Studer (Studer method 01)
In November 2025 GM Noel Studer released a YouTube video titled "How to Analyze Your Chess Games." In it he stressed the importance of reviewing one's games with the goal of identifying key mistakes and learning from them. In pursuing that goal, however, Studer cautions against blind reliance on chess engines that act like human coaches, instead proposing a more thorough and growth-oriented self-analysis method that involves the evaluation bar, the engine's lines and a specific set of questions.
Studer's method consists of selecting three moves that were turning points in the game and for each move posing three questions:
1. Why did I choose that move?
2. Why is my move not ideal?
3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
What follows is an exercise in applying the Studer method to a casual Blitz game played earlier today on Lichess against one puisker345.
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| Position 1: Black to move |
The game featured a line in the Exchange French that I call the Guru Variation -- where after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 and 4.Nf3 Bd6 5.Nc3, Black develops his kingside knight with 5...Ne7 hoping to exchange light-square bishes on the f5-d3 diag. White continued 6.Bg5, but after 6...f6 and 7.Bh4 0-0 8.Bd3, I opted for 8...Nbc6. The game continued 9.Nb5 Nb4 10.Nxd6 Nxd3+ 11.Qxd3 Qxd6, and then came 12.c4. The eval bar went from -0.3 to -2.2, but after my 12...Re8 it settled on -1.3.
1. Why did I choose 12...Re8?
I try to remind myself before every game to continually scan for opportunities for pins, forks and discovered attacks. Moving my rook to e8 positioned it on the open file and set up the potential for a discovered check if White were to play 13.cxd5.
2. Why is my move not ideal?
The reason my move is not ideal is because it allows White to castle and in so doing to preempt my discovered check, as indeed happened in the game. In fixating on a potential check, I missed a powerful check that was immediately available.
3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
The better moves, 12...Qe6+ or 12...Qb4+, add a second attacker targeting White's c4-pawn and come with tempo, ultimately resulting in White losing either the c4-pawn or the d4-pawn. For example, after 12...Qe6+ White has to move the king or block with his queen, and either way his pawn on c4 falls.
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| Position 2: Black to move |
After White castled with 13.0-0 and I chopped with 13...dxc4 to leave White with an iso d-pawn, the game continued 14.Qxc4+ Be6 15.Qc2 Nf5 16.Bg3 Nxg3 17.fxg3 Bd5 18.Rf1 Bxf3 19.gxf3 Qxd4+ 20.Kg2 c6 21.Rad1 Qb4 22.Rxe8+ Rxe8 23.Rd7 Qb5 24.Qb3+ Qxb3 and 25.axb3. The eval bar showed -3.0, but moved to 0.0 after my 25...Rb8.
1. Why did I choose 25...Rb8?
White's rook on d7 was threatening 26.Rxb7, after which my pawns on a7 and c6 could not both be defended. I knew I was relegating my rook to a passive position, stuck defending a pawn, but saw no other way of retaining my three-on-two queenside pawn majority.
2. Why is my move not ideal?
The reason my move isn't ideal is because, besides condemning my rook to eternal guard duty on the back rank, it overlooks the fork that was immediately available with 25...Re2+.
3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
Appreciating how 25...Re2+ ultimately results in a one-on-zero queenside pawn majority entails understanding how Black uses the tempo from the check to save his b-pawn -- not with the rook but with either of the adjacent pawns. For example, after 26.Kh3, Black plays the crucial 26...b5 (or 26...b6); and then after 27.Rxa7 Rxb2 and 28.Rc7 Rxb3, Black defends the b-pawn from an active position and after 29.Rxc6 has time to capture another pawn with 29...Rxf3.
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| Position 3: Black to move |
Unable to find anything constructive to do with his rook, White continued 26.Kf2. My reply 26...Kf8 turned out to be fortuitous given White's continuation 27.Ke3, inviting 27...Re8+ and an opportunity to solve the problem of my passive rook with 28...Re7. I instead pushed 27...c5, and the game continued 28.Rc7 Re8+ 29.Kf4 Re2 30.Rxc5 Rxh2 31.Rc8+ Kf7 32.Rc7+ Kg6 33.Rxb7 Rxb2 34.Rxa7 Rxb3. Our queenside pawns now off the board, I had a three-on-two kingside pawn majority but the game was still a theoretical draw. The game continued 35.Ra5 h6 36.g4 Rb4+ 37.Kg3 Kh7 38.f4 Rb3+ and 39.Kh4 -- White's last move plunging the eval bar to #-19.
1. Why did I choose 39...Rb2?
Because my rook cut off the White king's access to the third rank, the king was effectively trapped on h4 and h5. I saw that if White were to blunder 40.Kh5, I would have 40...Rh2#. And while I considered 39...g5+, I neglected to calculate the line and thought only of my king's resulting vulnerability to checks without the g7-pawn shielding him from White's rook.
2. Why is my move not ideal?
The reason my move is not ideal is because it disregards the sequence of moves that would ensue after giving a check and because it banks on White blundering mate in one.
3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
39...g5+ is a forcing move. White can't continue 40.Kh5 because of 40...Rh3#. That leaves 40.fxg5. After 40...hxg5+ or 40...fxg5+ White's still can't continue 41.Kh5, i.e. his best move is to give up the rook with 41.Rxg5. After chopping White's rook, Black's advantage is decisive.
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| Final thoughts |
That this game ultimately ended in a draw is likely the reason I chose it for this exercise: it provoked neither of the emotional responses described in the intro. Small sample size notwithstanding, my feeling during and after the analysis above is that the Studer method lives up to its promise.
Structure is the soul of productivity. What Noel Studer's method offers is a clear plan of action where the alternative is to get lost in best-move arrows or misled by an AI coach. Moreover, when a game of chess ends and something needs to fill the adrenaline void, the Studer method is a more exciting choice than a machine-generated analysis.
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