The chess fundamentals Scorecard
Every game you review on AxiomChess ends with a Scorecard: 7 chess fundamentals, grouped into the 4 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 4 habits and the danger row
Habit 1
Is it safe?
before you let go of a piece: what is your opponent’s strongest response?
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
Develop every move · Castle on time
Habit 4
Know your line
stay in theory; punish when they leave
Know your line
Danger row
Loose or overworked pieces
before you move: loose pieces, overworked defenders, back rank, king shield
Every move you made with one of your pieces loose, a defender overworked, your king’s shield open or your back rank weak is a test; a move that lost ten points of winning chances from there is a slip, and the sentence under it names what fell: the loose piece, the miscounted exchange, the fork, the pin, the discovery, the strike on f2 or f7, or what your own move stopped guarding.
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, and only when your move cost you winning chances. 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: 7 principles in 4 habits — “Is it safe”, “Checks, captures, threats”, “Develop and castle”, and “Know your line” — plus a row for the moves you made with a piece loose or a defender overworked. 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 and yours cost you winning chances, 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 and your move cost you winning chances. 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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