Coach Chesswick
What You’re Doing Well
Ágoston, your recent rapid games show some strong points worth highlighting:
- Your win rate is impressive, especially when adjusted for the strength of opponents, standing at nearly 80%. This reflects your ability to capitalize on opportunities.
- You have good success with certain openings such as the Blackburne Shilling Gambit and the Accelerated Dragon variation of the Sicilian Defense, both showing 100% win rates. This suggests you understand these lines well and can steer games favorably there.
- Your attacking play and tactics are sharp, as evidenced by your quick checkmate wins in some games. You are capable of spotting and executing decisive moves effectively.
- Consistency in your opening choice, particularly in Sicilian Defense lines and the Caro-Kann, helps you build strong familiar positions and build on your strengths.
Areas to Improve
To push your rapid rating higher, consider focusing on these areas:
- Time Management: In your most recent loss against GM_Wertiko, the game ended on time, which indicates losing on the clock. Improving your pacing during the game will help avoid such time troubles, especially in complex positions.
- Handling Complex Middle Games: Several of your losses occurred in complicated positions, particularly with openings like the Caro-Kann and some Sicilian variations such as the Najdorf and Maróczy Bind. Reviewing these lines and understanding critical plans and typical pawn structures will strengthen your strategic play.
- Expanding Opening Repertoire: While you excel in certain openings, some (like the Sicilian Najdorf and Maróczy Bind) are currently challenging, with no wins recorded. Diversifying your preparation or deepening study for these lines could offer more reliable results.
- Endgame Technique: The drawn and lost games suggest room for improvement in converting and defending favorable endgames. Studying common endgame patterns will boost your confidence and ability to close out games successfully.
Next Steps and Training Tips
- Analyze your games where time pressure affected the result to develop better clock use strategies, such as setting checkpoints during games and practicing speed through tactics puzzles under timed conditions.
- Focus on opening study for the lines where your results are weaker, using annotated games and theory updates to reinforce key concepts.
- Make endgame study a regular part of your training — working on king and pawn endings, rook endings, and basic mating patterns will pay dividends.
- Keep using the openings where you succeed well – your strong results in the Blackburne Shilling Gambit and Accelerated Dragon imply these are good weapons in your arsenal.
- Maintain a balanced approach between study and regular practice games to apply what you learn and track ongoing progress.
Your recent consistent rating and positive trend slope over the last few months show a solid foundation. With focused improvements as suggested, you should be able to push your rapid results further.