Master Games is Rovian’s archive of games by the world’s greatest players, old and new, that you can open and analyze. Pick a game, press “Analyze” and Stockfish 17 rates every move, showing both players’ accuracy and mistakes. Then you solve the best moves the master missed as puzzles.
World champions played wrong moves too; textbooks usually leave those moments in the footnotes. Opening your own lost game can sting. Looking at a master’s mistake hurts less, and it leads to the same question: what would you have played there?
Who is in the Master Games archive?
The archive is filled with games imported from public PGN collections. The top of the page lists the players with the most games in it. At the time of writing, that list included Carlsen, Caruana, Nakamura, Kramnik, Anand, Kasparov, Karpov, Tal, Fischer, Alekhine, Lasker and Capablanca.
The range is wide: from Capablanca’s games in the 1930s and 40s to games played in 2026. Open the page without searching and you’ll see the games most recently added to the archive. Each row shows both players, the result, the event, the year and the opening’s ECO code.
You can reach the page from the “Other ways to train” section on the Puzzles screen or from the link in the site footer.
How do I find a master’s games?
Search works with part of a player’s name and ignores capitalisation, so typing “capa” is enough to find Capablanca. It looks at both the White and Black player. Results run from the newest game to the oldest, with up to 50 games shown at a time.
The same player may be spelled differently across collections: one record says “Kasparov, Gary”, another “Kasparov,G”. Searching by surname is the safest bet. Clicking a featured player does the same as searching for that name.
1. Open the Master Games page.
2. Type a surname in the search box or click one of the featured players.
3. Pick a game from the list and press “Analyze”.
What does a master game analysis show?
The analysis runs on your own device with Stockfish 17; the game isn’t uploaded anywhere. A quick pass comes first, then the engine deepens its look at each position. At the end you see both players’ accuracy, move classifications and the evaluation graph.
Moves are classified from Brilliant to Blunder. Key moments take you straight to the moves that decided the game. Stuck on a position? “Calculate alternatives” makes the engine list its top three moves with scores and continuations. You can also autoplay the game, copy its PGN or download it.
Results are kept for as long as the tab stays open, so returning to the same game doesn’t rerun the deep pass. If the engine finds no mistakes at all, it says “Clean game: no mistakes.” World champions do sometimes play flawlessly.
We covered the review screen in detail in our game analysis post; the same tool runs on master games.
How do puzzles come from masters’ mistakes?
Once the analysis is complete, a “Puzzles from your mistakes” section opens at the bottom of the page. Despite the name, it holds the key moments of the player being reviewed: the position just before every move rated a Mistake, Miss or Blunder. Your job is to find the best move the master didn’t.
Get it wrong and the board resets so you can try again. If you’re stuck, “Show answer” reveals the best move and “See in game” jumps to that moment. The puzzle also shows the move actually played, so you can set your idea next to the master’s choice. A counter at the top shows where you are, and the dots below let you jump to any puzzle.
The analysis also lists the reviewed side’s mistake types, such as a hanging piece, a missed mate or a fork. If you’re signed in, each type links to puzzles on that topic.
One detail: the page opens the game from White’s side, and the puzzles come from White’s moves. To solve a particular master’s mistakes, pick a game where they had White. Their mistakes are never written to your weakness profile. To use the same method on your own games, see our personal puzzles post.
How should I study master games?
Instead of watching a game from start to finish, stop at the key moments. This order works well:
1. Start the analysis and go to the key moments.
2. Turn off the best-move arrow with the eye icon and choose your own candidate.
3. Use “Calculate alternatives” to compare your candidate with the engine’s top three moves.
4. Finally, solve the same moments on the board in the puzzle section.
When you find the idea a master missed, the same idea may one day turn up in your own game. The ECO code in the list tells you which opening the game started with. If you’d like to add a favourite master’s opening to your own repertoire, read our Opening School post.
Find a master’s mistake today
Looking at your own mistake takes courage; looking at a world champion’s takes curiosity. Open Master Games, type Capablanca or Carlsen and analyze your first game. Hunting for what a world champion missed is also a good warm-up before you return to your own games.
When you find the move the master missed, test what you learned against a real opponent: play live video chess. Open your camera. Make your move.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I analyze famous chess games?
On Rovian’s Master Games page you can open games by masters old and new and have Stockfish 17 review them with “Analyze”. The engine runs on your device; the game isn’t uploaded to a server.
Are Capablanca’s games in the archive?
Yes. Type “Capablanca” in the search box to list his games. Results run from newest to oldest, with up to 50 games shown at a time.
How do master games turn into puzzles?
When the analysis is complete, the positions just before the reviewed side’s moves rated Mistake, Miss or Blunder become puzzles. Your task is to find the best move the master missed at that moment.
Do a master’s mistakes affect my stats?
No. Mistake diagnoses from master games are never written to your weakness profile; you only see them while reviewing that game.
Do I need an account to analyze master games?
No. The Master Games page doesn’t require signing in, and the analysis runs in your browser; just open a game and press “Analyze”.