To analyze your own chess games effectively, review each game once on your own first, then check it with an engine, and focus on the moments where you had a decision, not just the moves the engine dislikes.
•Review before the engine. Replay the game and note where you felt unsure. Self-review builds judgment; jumping straight to the engine trains you to memorize, not understand.
•Then check with Stockfish. Use depth 20+ so the evaluation is trustworthy. Look for evaluation swings.
•Ask "why," not just "what." At each mistake, figure out the idea you missed: a tactic, a better plan, a structural issue. Naming the reason is what transfers to your next game.
•Track patterns across games. One game tells you little; ten games reveal your recurring weakness.
•Turn findings into drills. Re-play the corrected idea until it's automatic.
Mainline automates the tedious parts (engine analysis, pattern-finding, and turning mistakes into a spaced-repetition queue) while keeping the "why" front and center with plain-English explanations on every drill.