Position analyzer
Analyse any chess position
Free · runs in your browser
Analyse any position with Stockfish 19
- Paste a FEN or set up the pieces on the board
- Best move, evaluation and up to five engine lines
- Runs on your device, nothing is uploaded
How to analyse a position properly
Engines answer the question you ask, so ask the right one. Before you press analyse, write down the move you would play and the move you were afraid of. Then compare. If your move is in the top three lines within half a pawn of the best, you understood the position; the engine is just tidier about move order. If your move is not in the list at all, that is the lesson.
Next, play the engine's first move on the board and look at the reply it expects. Nine times out of ten the “why” behind a surprising engine move is in the opponent's best response two plies later: a pin that appears, a square that is suddenly covered, a pawn that cannot be defended. Keep stepping forward until the idea becomes obvious, then undo back to the start.
Finally, test your own idea. Play your move, let the engine respond, and see how far the evaluation drops. A drop of 0.3 is a matter of taste. A drop of 1.5 is a mistake you should be able to explain to yourself.
Reading the numbers
| Evaluation | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| 0.00 to ±0.30 | Balanced. The result depends on who plays better from here. |
| ±0.30 to ±0.90 | One side is more comfortable. A draw is still the likeliest outcome between equals. |
| ±0.90 to ±2.00 | A clear advantage, often a pawn or lasting pressure. Strong players convert this most of the time. |
| beyond ±2.00 | Winning with correct technique. The side behind is hoping for a mistake. |
| M3, -M7 | Forced checkmate in that many moves for White (positive) or Black (negative). |
Numbers are not linear in practice. The difference between +0.5 and +1.0 changes results far more than the difference between +4 and +6, which is why our accuracy calculator converts evaluations into win probabilities before grading moves.