Coach Chesswick
Hi Alessia 👋
It’s great to see you playing ambitious, initiative–driven chess. Your most recent victory against buldokklan1 shows how quickly you can convert an edge into a mating attack:
What’s working well
- Opening imagination. Gambits (King’s Gambit, Grob) and off-beat Rossolimo ideas keep opponents out of book early.
- Tactical vision. Tactics like 22.Qg5+!! and the final rook lift above illustrate sharp calculation and pattern awareness.
- Practical speed. Even in 3 | 0 you often reach the late middlegame with ~1:50 on the clock—enough to finish attacks confidently.
Growth opportunities
- Pawn-structure sensitivity.
In the recent loss to shallexi (E24) the early …f5–f4 thrust left weak dark squares and let White create a dangerous passed e-pawn. Look for pawn breaks that open your pieces rather than merely chase something. - King safety when you’re defending.
When opponents counter-sacrifice you sometimes leave your king on the same file as an advancing pawn (…c6 in the Nimzo game), making tactics work for them instead of you. - Risk management in the openings.
The Grob and certain King’s-Gambit lines score well versus lower-rated players yet become resource-intensive against peers. Adding one solid main-line repertoire (e.g. Catalan/Italian with White, Classical Sicilian or Queen’s Gambit Declined with Black) will give you a dependable fallback on tilt days. - Conversion technique.
A few games were lost or timed-out in winning endings. Practising technical endgames (rook vs pawns, RB vs R) will bump your blitz sprint-finish confidence.
Action plan for the next 4 weeks
- Opening tune-up
• Add one “positional” system (1.d4 d5 2.c4 or the London) to contrast your gambits.
• For Black vs 1.d4, test the Nimzo–Indian again but delay …f5/…f4 until you complete development. - Tactics & calculation
• 15 min/day on themed puzzles where you are worse and must defend.
• Every weekend, choose one blitz loss and write out “Why did this tactic work for my opponent?” in a sentence or two. - Endgame mileage
• Play five 10 | 5 games/week and agree to trade queens when equal.
• Drill the 25 most common rook endgames (Lichess trainer or any PGN set you like). - Clock discipline
• Aim to have ≥ 50 % of your starting time after move 15.
• If behind by ≥ 1 min, switch to “easy-move” mode: only calculate forcing lines unless the position is quiet.
Progress trackers
Use the charts below to spot streaks and schedule sessions when your win-rate peaks:
Motivation corner
Your current best blitz rating is 2408 (2018-08-04).
Let’s target +50 elo by pairing your natural attacking flair
with sturdier structures and cooler clock habits.
Keep enjoying the journey and feel free to share any tricky positions—
we’ll crack them together!