Coach Chesswick
Hi Amit!
You play entertaining, forward-moving chess and your rating graph shows steady progress. Below is personalised, practical feedback drawn from your latest wins and losses.
What’s already working
- Tactical awareness. Your wins often feature sacrifices such as 7.Bxf7+ or rook lifts (29.Rf1+–32.Rf3#). You spot mating nets quickly—keep sharpening this edge.
- Fast development & castling. In almost every game you reach a safe king before move 10, allowing you to seize the initiative.
- Willingness to invest material. You sacrifice pawns (and sometimes pieces) for open lines. In rapid time-controls this is a very effective strategy.
Biggest improvement themes
- Black repertoire vs 1.d4.
In the loss to kharola001 you mixed …e6, …g6 and …c5 ideas without a coherent plan and were punished on the dark squares.
– Pick ONE main defence (Queen’s Gambit Declined, King’s Indian or Nimzo/Benoni) and learn 10 “tabiya” positions.
– Focus on typical pawn breaks rather than memorising move orders. - Over-extension in the Italian.
Several defeats (e.g. vs mix1963) started with e4–e5 followed by f-pawn pushes while pieces lagged. Before advancing centre pawns ask “Are my back-rank pieces active yet?” - Defensive patience.
You tend to resign/abandon once worse. Train with puzzles labelled defense and play the “save-the-game” drill: start from a bad position and hold for 30 moves. - Converting winning positions faster.
In the win vs someone117502 you needed 20 moves to mate with queen+two rooks. Study Lucena & Philidor rook endings so you can finish efficiently and avoid flagging. - Clock management.
Average time left at move 30 is under one minute in both wins and losses. Try the 40-20-20 rule: 40 % opening; 20 % middlegame transition; 20 % endgame; keep 20 % as emergency reserve.
Homework for the coming week
- Solve 15 tactics/day focusing on double-check & deflection motifs.
- Play three 15 | 10 rapid games as Black using the Caro-Kann; self-annotate, then engine-check.
- Find a stronger continuation for Black in the critical moment below (you resigned three moves later):
Your performance snapshot
Blitz peak: 1250 (2020-09-01)
Rapid peak: 1297 (2023-12-19)
When you win / when you lose
Final thoughts
Keep nurturing your attacking flair—it is your signature strength. Add one solid Black system, a bit of defensive grit, and smoother end-game technique, and the next rating jump will follow soon. Good luck in your upcoming games, Amit!