Tom Shih NM

General Performance Overview

Tom, your recent rating trend presents an interesting picture. You have shown a positive rating increase over the last month, with a gain of 4 points and a promising one-month rating trend slope of approximately 1.51. This indicates that your current form is improving. However, the longer-term trends over 3 and 6 months show declines in rating (-11 and -108 points respectively), cautioning that sustained improvement is a work in progress. The 12-month trend slope is more negative, suggesting past challenges that you are now possibly overcoming.

Your strength adjusted win rate of about 50.1% is solid for blitz play, showing you are competitive at your current level. Keep pushing to convert this competency into consistent wins.

Recent Game Highlights and Feedback

• Opening Understanding: You frequently employ openings like the Sicilian Defense Wing Gambit and Nimzowitsch Defense, indicating a willingness to engage in complex positional and tactical battles early on. Your opening repertoire is ambitious and suits blitz play well, but pay attention to opponent-specific preparation and possible improvements in move order to prevent early positional concessions.
• Tactical Sharpness: Several of your wins feature sharp tactical play such as knight forks, sacrifices to gain material advantage, and quick checkmates, e.g., defeating opponents by checkmate in under 30 moves in pressured positions. This shows strong awareness of dynamic opportunities in blitz.
• Time Management: Losses by time on the clock are a recurring pattern. Managing your clock better in complex positions could prevent some losses and improve conversion of good positions into wins.
• Endgame Technique: Some games reveal opportunities to press advantages further or defend in difficult positions more resiliently. Review endgame fundamentals especially around rook and minor piece endgames to solidify these stages of the game.

Areas for Improvement

• Time Pressure: Practice playing under time constraints, focusing on simplifying when ahead and avoiding speculative moves that cost time.
• Opening Consistency: Continue refining your openings by reviewing common lines and traps in your favored openings like the Sicilian Wing Gambit and Nimzowitsch Defense. This will reduce early-game risks.
• Positional Play: Develop deeper understanding of positional concepts to avoid giving away critical squares or pieces unnecessarily, which sometimes occurred in your losses.
• Endgame Study: Spend time on typical tactical and strategic motifs in endgames relevant to your typical games to convert advantages more reliably.
• Mental Resilience: Blitz games can be intense; maintain focus and avoid rushing decisions especially in complicated positions.

Next Steps for Progress

Leveraging your tactical instincts with more study and practical training on time management and endgames can considerably boost your performance. Regularly analyze games—especially losses—to identify where you can improve decision-making speed and positional judgment.

Keep up with your recent positive trend by balancing practice and self-analysis, and consider focusing on one or two openings more deeply to gain a competitive edge.