1. CHESS ANALYTICS 00.2: Methods, Part 3: How to Read the Output Files
2. CHESS ANALYTICS 00.0: List of Other Chess Analytics Articles

1. 1. The Basic Units of the Analysis
2. 2. Expected Score
3. 3. Expected-Score Loss
4. 4. WDL Accuracy
5. 5. Game Accuracy
6. 6. Mutual Accuracy
7. 7. Performance Quality
8. 8. Dominance
9. 9. Volatility
10. 10. RMS Expected-Score Loss
11. 11. Error Concentration
12. 12. Score, Expected Score, and Conversion
13. 13. HardRAP and SoftRAP
14. 14. How the Metrics Form One Whole
15. 15. Why WDL Is Preferable Here to Pawn Evaluation
16. 16. Why This Series Is Worth Doing

2026-06-12, added Part 2:

1. CHESS ANALYTICS 00.1: Methods, Part 2 — Post-WDL Difficulty Metrics
2. 1. WDL Metrics: Measuring Lost Scoring Chances
3. 2. All-Legal Difficulty: How Narrow Was the Position?
4. 3. Difficulty-Weighted Accuracy: Accuracy Under Pressure
5. 4. CCP Difficulty: Checks, Captures, and Promotions
6. 5. CCP-v2: Recursive Forcing-Line Search Difficulty
7. 6. CCP-v2 Vision: Looking for Quiet Ideas Before Forcing Lines
8. 7. CCP-v2 Two-Stage Probe/Confirm: Search Cheaply, Then Confirm Seriously
9. 8. CCP-v2 Root-Branch Diagnostics: What Did the Search Actually Prefer?
10. 9. CCP-v2 Log-Critical Moves: Where Difficulty Meets Damage
11. 10. What the Post-WDL Metrics Add
12. 11. Short Chronological Summary of Analyzer v3.6.1
13. 12. Practical Reading Guide

This article series studies World-Championship matches and World-Championship qualification runs with a modern engine-based method.

The basic idea is simple:

Put every move of great historical matches under Stockfish 18, translate each position into win/draw/loss chances, and then ask: who preserved winning chances better, who lost chances more often, who created volatility, who converted chances into points, and who stayed more consistent?

Stockfish 18 is far stronger than any human player. Its strength is so far above human World Champions that comparing it to humans by normal Elo becomes difficult. This makes it useful as a reference point: not because it “understands chess like a human,” but because it gives a very strong, consistent measuring stick.

The purpose is not to reduce chess greatness to one number. The purpose is to create a performance profile:

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