The chess fundamentals Scorecard
Every game you review on AxiomChess ends with a Scorecard: 17 chess fundamentals, grouped into the 7 habits below, each graded on the positions where it actually applied. It is the part of the review that tells you what to practise — not how often you matched the engine, but which principle you skipped, and where.
Why not just accuracy?
Accuracy is one number: how often you matched the engine. A game can score well and still leave the king in the centre until move 20, or ignore a passed pawn for ten moves. The Scorecard names the habit, and it only counts a miss when Stockfish’s own line shows the principled move was better — the board defines the opportunity, the engine is the referee, and nothing speaks without an engine call.
The 7 habits
Habit 1
Is it safe?
before you let go of a piece
Don’t leave material hanging
Habit 2
Checks, captures, threats
theirs and yours, every move
See mate in one · Take what they leave you · Answer the threat
Habit 3
Develop and castle
a new piece every move, king safe by 10
Fight for the centre · Develop every move · Don’t move the same piece twice · Keep your castling rights · Keep the queen home early · Castle on time
Habit 4
Know your line
stay in theory; punish when they leave
Know your line
Habit 5
Trade with a purpose
swap when ahead; don’t wake their pieces
Trade when ahead · Bad trades
Habit 6
Give every piece a job
rooks to open files, knights to outposts
Rooks to open files · Knight to an outpost
Habit 7
March the king, push the passer
in the endgame
March the king in · Push the passer, rook behind it
How a row is graded
Each principle is a detector that reads the board, not the score. It looks for the positions where the principle applied — a king still uncastled with the pieces out, a hanging piece, an open file with a rook idle behind a pawn — and asks whether you followed it. Then Stockfish rules: the miss is charged only when the engine’s own move at that ply embodied the principle, or its reply cashed the square you left. A habit the game never tested reads as untested, never as a pass.
Frequently asked questions
A grade for the fundamentals in every game you review: 17 principles in 7 habits, from “castle on time” and “don’t hang pieces” to “march the king in” once the queens are off. It is the recap’s report card, and it is deterministic — the same game always gets the same Scorecard.
Accuracy is one number: how often your moves matched the engine. It cannot tell you the pattern behind the misses. The Scorecard names the habit — the principle you skipped, and where — and only counts a miss when Stockfish’s own line shows the principled move was better, so it never blames you for a rule the position did not ask for.
The board defines the opportunity: a position where the principle applies, such as a king still in the centre past move ten or a passed pawn that can advance. Stockfish is the referee: the miss is charged only when the engine’s own move at that ply embodies the principle. No language model is involved in the judgement.
Yes. It is part of every free game review: enter a Chess.com or Lichess username, or import a PGN, and each analyzed game ends with its Scorecard. No account is needed.
See your own Scorecard: every analyzed game ends with one, free, no account.
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