How to review a game
- Fastest: type your username. Choose Chess.com or Lichess, enter your handle, and your last five games appear. Tap one and the review opens.
- Or get the game yourself. On Chess.com open the game and copy the link from the address bar, or press Share, then the PGN tab, and copy the text. On Lichess copy the game URL, or take the PGN from under the board on the analysis page.
- Paste it in the box above. A link or a PGN both work. The game is saved and queued for analysis the moment it lands.
- Step through the review. Every move is graded at depth 18 and fills in as each position is searched. Tap a move to see the evaluation and the better line, and the coach explains the moves that decided the game.
How moves are graded
Every move gets one grade, based on how much win probability it gave away compared with the engine's best move at depth 18. The thresholds are the same ones the Chess DNA app uses.
| Grade | Win chance lost | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Brilliant | under 2% | A move that gives up material and still holds up at depth 18. It has to leave you at least equal, or it is just a piece thrown away. |
| Best | none | The engine's first choice. |
| Excellent | under 2% | As good as the best move in practice. |
| Good | under 5% | Keeps the evaluation where it was. |
| Forced | none | The only legal move. Nothing to judge. |
| Inaccuracy | under 10% | A small slip, the kind that adds up over a game. |
| Mistake | under 20% | A clear error that changes the evaluation. |
| Miss | over 10% | Your opponent blundered, you were already winning, and you let it slip instead of punishing it. |
| Blunder | 20% or more | The move that decides games. The review opens on the worst of these first. |
Grades are counted per side and shown next to both accuracy figures, so you can see at a glance whether a game was lost to one blunder or to a run of inaccuracies.
How to read the report
Accuracy is a single percentage per player. It is computed from how much win probability each move gave away, not from how many moves matched the engine's first choice, which is why a quiet game can score high even when the moves are not engine perfect. There is no universal pass mark. A sharp tactical game scores lower than a quiet one for everybody, grandmasters included, because there is more to give away, and a figure is only comparable to another computed at the same depth with the same engine. Read it against your own other games, not against a number from another site.
Move labels run from best and excellent through inaccuracy, mistake and blunder. The boundary between them is win chance loss, not centipawns: giving away five percent of your winning chances in a sharp position matters more than a two hundred centipawn swing in a position that was already lost. That is the same thresholding the Chess DNA app uses.
The moves that cost the most table is the part to actually study. It sorts your errors by how much win probability they gave away and shows the move the engine preferred. Two or three moves usually account for the whole result.
What "free" means here
The engine review is free and unlimited, with no signup, no email, no daily cap and no watermark: bring a game and you see every move graded at depth 18, the accuracy for both sides and the moments that decided the result. Review one game or fifty, the price is the same.
The one metered part is the coach's AI explanation of a move. Three are free on this page. A free Chess DNA account gives you more, and adds what a single review cannot: practice on the moves you missed, a comparison with a friend, and a Chess DNA card built from your games.
The analysis runs on Chess DNA's servers, the same pipeline the app uses for imported games, so the figures here match what the app would show for the same game.
One game is not a diagnosis
A single review tells you what went wrong in one game. It cannot tell you what goes wrong in your chess, because a single game cannot separate a bad day from a habit.
The useful question is which mistake repeats. Chess DNA analyzes your recent games together and sorts every error into nine weakness themes: missed fork, missed pin, missed skewer, back rank weakness, hanging pieces, missed tactic, opening inaccuracy, endgame technique and middlegame tactics. Seeing that eleven of your last thirty losses share one theme is a different kind of information from seeing one blunder on move 24.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this chess game review really free?
Yes. The full engine review is free with no account, no email and no payment. The only metered part is the AI coach explanation of a move: three are free here, and a free Chess DNA account gives you more.
Can I review my Chess.com or Lichess games by username?
Yes. Pick Chess.com or Lichess, type your username and your last five games are listed. Choose one and the review opens, no link or PGN needed. Only public games are visible this way; for an older game, paste its link or PGN instead.
Is there a limit on how many games I can review?
No. The engine review is unlimited and free without an account. There is no daily cap of the kind Chess.com puts on free Game Review.
Do I need an account to review a game?
No. Type a username, paste a link or a PGN, and the full engine review opens without a signup. An account is only needed for the extras around it: more AI explanations, practice on your mistakes, comparing with a friend and sharing your Chess DNA card.
How is chess accuracy calculated?
Each move is scored by how much win probability it gave away compared with the best move, and those per move scores are combined into one figure. The tool above uses the same win chance model and the same accuracy curve as the Chess DNA app, so the numbers match.
How long does a game review take?
Usually under a minute. The game is analyzed at depth 18 on Chess DNA servers rather than in your browser tab, and the moves fill in as each position is searched, so you can start stepping through the opening while the endgame is still being graded.
How is this different from Chess.com Game Review?
Chess.com gives free members a limited number of reviews per day and gates the rest behind a paid plan. Here the engine review itself is free without an account. Chess.com narrates every move; this page grades every move and adds AI coach explanations for the moves that mattered, three of them free before a free sign-up.
Can I review a game I played over the board?
Yes, as long as you can write the moves out as a PGN. A bare move list starting "1. e4 e5 2. Nf3" is enough, the header tags are optional.