What a Process Audit is
A Process Audit is a published case study of a single failed move. We take a real position you blundered, walk it through the Method step-by-step, and identify the exact step you skipped. Not “the engine prefers this move” — every analysis tool says that. We name the precise step in your thinking process where the move you missed was supposed to surface.
The output is a permanent diagnosis, not just a verdict. You leave knowing what to drill — not what to “try to remember next time.”
- The Position. Game context, FEN, whose move.
- The Move That Was Played. What you chose, what it cost.
- The Engine’s Verdict. What the engine prefers — and why that doesn’t tell you what you missed.
- The Method Walkthrough. All 5 Method steps, applied to your position. ~700-1000 words.
- The Skipped Step. Plainly: “You skipped Step N.” Shown with the exact diagnostic.
- The Drill. A specific 5-10 minute exercise to install the missing step.
- The Method, Continued. Cross-links to deeper theory and the next audit.
What you’ll get — a 90-second example
Here’s the format applied to a hypothetical position so you can see the shape of what you’ll receive:
The position: Middlegame, Black to move. Black has just developed a knight to f6. White’s next move blunders a pawn.
The move played: 1. Bd3 — looks like a calm developing move. The engine instantly drops the eval by -1.2.
The engine’s verdict: “1. h3 was preferred.” Useful, but it doesn’t tell you why you didn’t see h3 on the board.
Step 1 — last-move scan: Black just played Nf6. What did Nf6 unlock? A latent attack on the e4 square.
Step 2 — CCT (checks/captures/threats), both sides: Black’s L2 (level-two king-track threat) on the e4 pawn was visible. So was Black’s L3 (piece capture) of e4 itself if undefended.
Step 3 — candidate moves: The position’s prophylactic source surfaces h3 (preventing Bg4 pin) and Re1 (defending e4 directly). Bd3 was generated by the developing-piece source — useful in general, blind to this position.
Step 4 — variation evaluation, against-self: Skipped.
Step 5 — pre-move check: Skipped.
Drill: For one week, before every move in your online games, read three words aloud — checks, captures, threats — for both sides. Time it. The first day will feel slow. By day 5, Step 2 is automatic, and L3 captures stop disappearing on you.
That’s it. Real audits include a board diagram and your actual game. The output is yours; if you give us permission, it gets published as Audit #N with your handle.
Submit your position
Send us a position from one of your games where you blundered. We’ll audit it for free.
Got it. We’ll be in touch.
Your position is in the queue. We’ll email you when your Process Audit is published — typically within 1-2 weeks for queued submissions, sooner if your position is a great fit for the upcoming editorial slot.
In the meantime: if you haven’t already, take the Skip Pattern Diagnostic to find out which step you most consistently miss.
What happens next
One audit publishes per week. We pick from the queue based on what teaches the broadest skip pattern — bias toward positions that illustrate one of the canonical Method steps clearly. Reader submissions are Tier 1 priority — they get picked over our own example games whenever the structural diagnosis is clear enough to teach others.
If your audit is published, you’ll get an email with the link. If you opted in to credit, your handle will be on it. Featured Process Audits live on this page and become a permanent part of the ChessLogic library.
Recently audited
New here? The Process Audit is the diagnostic engine of The Dimitrov Method. Skim the glossary for the vocabulary — L-levels, CCT, against-self, and the Cross-Track Priority rule are the core terms every audit uses.