Anastasia Zanan WFM

Hi Anastasia!

Great job keeping an active tournament schedule and scoring several strong wins. I’ve reviewed your two most recent games (win vs Bala-Afiada and loss vs ace_mar) together with surrounding results. Below is targeted feedback arranged by phase of the game, followed by a concrete training plan.

What you already do well

• Dynamic opening play with White. Your French (9.Qd2 Qxb2 10.Rb1 … 14.Nc7+) and Sicilian B56 win show you’re comfortable sacrificing tempi for initiative and you calculate tactics quickly.
• Conversion technique. In the Bala-Afiada endgame you calmly marched the king, collected pawns and queened (45.c6 & 53.b8=Q). Good technique under 60 seconds on the clock.
• Resourcefulness in messy positions. Several recent wins were rescued from objectively sharp or even worse middlegames — a valuable blitz skill.

Recurring problems

• Pawn grabbing with Black that loosens the position.
  • In the London loss you played 14…Bxd4 (grabbing) and soon couldn’t cover d6/c5 squares.
  • In multiple Grünfeld games the risky 11…Qxb2 motif appears. It often works, but when it fails it fails spectacularly.
• Dark-square weaknesses after …g6 set-ups. Against the London you placed pawns on g6, e5 and a bishop on g7 but never challenged Nd6/Nb5 ideas. A similar theme occurred in the Najdorf loss (h-pawn rush & Qg7#). Critical fragment:
• Coordination vs. Knights on strong outposts. Knights on d6 / c7 / b5 often dominated your bishops. You generally react with pawn pushes (…e5, …f5, …f6) that create new holes.
• Occasional time imbalance. You spend ~30-40 s on early moves then blitz critical moments. Aim for a steadier pace.

Opening recommendations

• Against 1.d4/London systems
  − Try the line 1…d5 2.Bf4 c5 3.e3 Nc6! 4.Nf3 Qb6, keeping the pawn structure symmetrical and pieces active.
  − Alternatively add a solid Queen’s Gambit or Slav; the resulting structures punish early Bf4.
• Refine your …Qxb2 repertoire by building exact engine-checked files so you know the forcing refutations and the safe bail-outs.
• Sideline a back-up vs. 1.e4 where you do not castle short so early; the quick …O-O combined with …Qf6-…Qxg3 in the Scotch cost valuable tempi.

Middlegame & Calculation drills

• Daily 15-minute “Prophylaxis check”: position the pieces so every opponent move has at least one answer.
  Ask “What is the threat?” before every move during practice games.
• Dark-square bishop vs. knight exercises (search for Good Knight vs Bad Bishop). Focus on preventing outposts.
• End every session with 3 defensive puzzles where your side is slightly worse. Your attacking instincts are good; balancing them with defense will lift your ceiling.

Endgame direction

Your conversion skills are a strength. To make them automatic:

• Study rook + pawn vs rook setups once a week.
• Add Queen vs Rook practice; you handled it well vs Bala but there were faster mates.

Progress tracker

Let’s visualise your results as you adopt the plan:

Targets for the next 30 days

1. Play at least 25 blitz games without taking pawns with the queen before move 12.
2. Solve 150 mixed tactics; annotate any puzzle you fail where the opponent’s knight dominates.
3. Upload three training games vs 2300+ to me with comments; we’ll add engine checks and refine your files.
4. Reach + 25.

I’m confident these adjustments will tighten your defense and turn close games against 2500-level opponents into points. Keep up the fighting spirit and see you at the next coaching session!