Coach Chesswick
Hi Brandon! Here’s a personalised performance review based on your recent games.
1. Your current profile at a glance
• Peak Blitz rating: 2601 (2016-11-11) • Peak Rapid rating: 2000 (2013-07-30)
• Activity snapshots:
2. What you’re already doing well
- Dynamic attacking play. You steer the game into sharp positions (e.g. 10.Bxh6! in the French Tarrasch) and usually calculate tactics accurately.
- Opening awareness. Your choice of main-line French and Sicilian systems shows good preparation; you rarely leave the book worse.
- Piece activity over material. When a sacrifice opens lines toward the enemy king, you are willing to pull the trigger—an essential trait at higher levels.
3. Main growth areas
- Time management. Four of the last six losses came from flagging in winning or equal positions. You often spend half your clock in the first 15 moves.
- Defensive technique. When the attack fizzles, counter-punches like ...Qc5+ (loss vs. martimhernandez2) catch you off guard. Train spotting “opponent threats” each move.
- Endgame conversion. With material edge you sometimes miss the simplest win and let counter-play creep in (see 40…Bb5? allowing white’s passed c-pawn).
- Prophylaxis. Good attackers must also prevent counter-play. Moves like h3/a3, or rerouting a defender, will save you from sudden tactics. Review the concept of zugzwang and prophylactic thinking in grand-master games.
4. Concrete action plan
- Adopt a “clock quota”. Aim to have >50 % of your starting time after move 15. Verbal cue: “instant candidate” → make at least one candidate move immediately before calculating.
- Tactics, but with a twist. Continue daily puzzle rush, yet set the board for the opponent after you solve; ask “what would I do as Black/White now?”. This builds defensive reflexes.
- Endgame mini-workouts. Spend 10 min/day on rook-and-pawn and opposite-coloured bishop studies. Use Lichess table-base or Chess.com drills; keep a notebook of critical ideas (e.g., the “Lucena bridge”).
- Annotate one game per week. Pick any of your wins or losses, switch the engine off for the first pass, write “Why did I think this was best?” after each critical move. Then compare with engine suggestions.
- Opening hygiene. Trim your repertoire to two main defences as Black and two set-ups as White. Rehearse the first 10 moves on a flash-card app, but add typical middle-game plans, not just move orders.
5. Deep-dive examples
Recent win (French C03, 1-0)
Highlights: Excellent exploitation of the h-file and timely queen trade. For extra punch, consider 14.Nxg6! as an alternative tactical shot.
Recent loss (Queen’s-Pawn, 0-1 on time)
Take-aways: The 19…f5 push weakened dark squares; consider 19…f6 or 19…fxe6 to keep your centre intact. More importantly, you still had a playable position at move 35 when you flagged. Adopt the clock quota rule to convert such endgames.
6. Next-week focus checklist
- [ ] Finish 15 defensive puzzles involving back-rank mates.
- [ ] Play two 15 | 10 games only slowly, write a one-sentence justification after each move.
- [ ] Review the French Winawer endgame structure “knight vs. bad bishop” from a master game.
- [ ] Set a timer: no single move may take more than 20 seconds before move 10.
Keep up the attacking spirit, Brandon, and balance it with a bit of defensive polish—your rating curve should climb steadily. Good luck and enjoy the journey!