How to review one of your own chess games
A sensible order for a review: your own thoughts first, then the turning points, and only after that a check with an engine.
Start by rebuilding your own thoughts
Play through the game with no help and mark the positions where you took a long time, hesitated, or suddenly changed plan. Next to each one write down what you were trying to achieve and which reply you were afraid of. Then the check that follows answers your questions instead of turning into a list of numbers.
Look at your opponent’s threat
Before judging your own decision, ask what your opponent’s last move changed. Check checks, captures and direct threats, then loose pieces and king safety. Many mistakes appear not because a calculation was hard but because the player kept following an old plan in a position that had already changed.
Find the first real turning point
Do not start with the final blunder. A game often becomes difficult earlier: a weak plan, a lost tempo, a threat nobody noticed. Compare the position before and after the suspicious move and look for the first moment where the chances clearly moved, not only for the biggest minus at the end.
Compare two reasonable candidates
Go back to the position before the mistake and pick two moves you would genuinely have considered at the board. For each one name the idea and the most natural reply. Only then turn on the analysis and check which candidate solved the main problem of the position, and why the other one did not.
Compare ideas, not only moves
Look at what the strong continuation actually achieves: it defends the king, creates a threat, improves your worst piece or gets in the way of your opponent’s plan. If the best move looks strange, walk a short line on the board until its point becomes visible. Write the conclusion in your own words, without a long variation.
Finish with one exercise
Save the position before the main turning point and solve it again without help. Repeat it a few days later: first name your opponent’s threat, then three candidate moves, and only then choose. One repetition like that usually helps more than scrolling through dozens of lines you will forget.