Review a game

The playmat's guide, review-game: Use when the player asks to review, go through, analyse or coach a game on the playmat, or accepts the offer of a review after importing.

Go through an imported game with your assistant as a coach. A review has two parts.

First, a turn-by-turn analysis. The assistant goes through every one of your turns: what you did, what it would have done instead and why, and a verdict from strong play to mistake. It ends with an overall assessment and what you did well, and records each finding on the game’s timeline.

Then, practice you choose. The analysis ends with a short list of the turns worth practising. Pick one and the assistant puts the board at the start of that turn on its own branch, so you see the position as you did, and asks you to play it again on the board. It then plays out the better line and the opponent’s likely replies so you can watch the scenarios, and leaves you with one principle for that turn.

It rates decisions, not outcomes. A good play that lost to a bad draw is still a good play, and a lucky one is still a mistake. If the line you play in practice is as good as its own, it says so.

The mistakes it finds become puzzles for the replay drill.

Example prompts

Review this game with me.

Review this game with me. Start with the turn where I lost tempo.

Let's practise my turn 4. I want to try a different line.