Chess Coaching Advice for Amy Choma

Summary for Amy Choma

Nice mix of tactical finishing and aggressive play — your recent wins show strong attacking sense and pattern recognition. Your losses highlight a few recurring practical issues: overlooking forcing sequences near the opponent's queen, leaving your king exposed on the kingside, and occasional time/use-of-clock inefficiencies. Below are concrete, actionable steps to convert your strengths into a steadier rating climb.

What you're doing well

Good tactical vision in open positions — you find sacrifices and mating nets (example: decisive finishing sequences in your July win vs kiranbellapu).
Active piece play — you like to bring pieces into the attack quickly (knight jumps, rook lifts).
Overall win rate and strength-adjusted win rate are solid (~51.6%), so your practical play is effective against comparable opposition.
You convert advantages confidently — when you win material you follow through to mate or decisive material gain.

Key mistakes from recent games (concrete examples)

Loss vs mrbussonyochess — main tactical oversight:
- Your opponent’s queen on h4 plus a pawn on f4 created mating threats. After 17...Qh4 your 18.g3 allowed fxg3 and a short mate. The root cause: you didn’t calculate the forced capture and follow-up mate patterns before playing a pawn push that opens lines toward your king.
- Lesson: when the enemy queen is aggressively posted near your king, ask “What captures or sacrifices open files or diagonals?” before moving pawns near the king.
Games with Scandinavian/Philidor lines — structural and coordination issues:
- Your Scandinavian performance is weaker (win rate ~30%). You often allow active enemy queen checks or penetrate on the c-file/d-file; consider more stable development and prophylaxis instead of early committal pawn moves.
Time and simplification:
- In some games you spend a lot of clock on quieter moves and have less time in sharp, tactical sequences. That increases blunder risk in tactical middlegames.

Concrete fixes and habits to build

Before every move, run a 3-check routine: (1) What is my opponent threatening right now? (2) Do I have any direct candidate captures or checks? (3) Will this move open lines toward my king? — especially when pawns around your king move.
Tactical focus: train mating patterns and sacrifices that open files (back-rank mates, queen/rook sacrifices on h2/h7, opening g/h-files). Start with 10–15 tactical puzzles per day emphasizing mating nets and discovery/deflection themes.
Opening prep: simplify your repertoire for rapid play.
- Philidor: prioritize piece development and avoid early knight reroutes that lose central tension. Consider one stable line to learn typical plans (e.g., exchange on d5 at the right moment, prepare e4 breaks).
- Scandinavian: practice one main line where you are comfortable meeting early queen moves — aim to complete development quickly and claim the initiative rather than chasing the queen repeatedly.
King safety: keep at least one luft (escape square) when you foresee heavy-piece attacks and be cautious with pawn moves in front of the king when the opponent has pieces ready to attack.
Time management: reserve extra time for move 10–25 (critical middlegame). If a position is quiet, make fast principle moves (develop, connect rooks) and bank time for tactics.

Short weekly training plan (3 weeks)

Daily (30–45 minutes):
- 15–20 min tactics (mating patterns + discovered attacks + deflections).
- 10–15 min opening review (one line in Philidor or your main Scandinavian reply — learn 5–6 typical plans).
- 5–10 min endgame basics (king + pawn, basic rook endings, and back-rank awareness).
Twice a week:
- Play two 10|0 rapid games and review them quickly (10–15 min) focusing on any calculated misses or threats you overlooked.
Submit one annotated loss per week (pick the most painful one) and re-play it slowly to find the critical moment and the right defense.

Practical checklist to use in games

Before you move: “Any checks, captures, threats?”
If your king has no luft and the opponent’s heavy pieces are nearby — consider prophylactic luft or trades of a key attacker.
When attacking: calculate forcing lines at least 2–3 moves deep (captures, checks, forced replies).
End of opening: aim to have all minor pieces developed and rooks connected; avoid leaving the queen vulnerable to tempo gains.

Suggested drills & resources

Tactics: focus sets on mating nets, deflection and discovered checks (10–20 puzzles/day).
Play thematic rapid mini-match vs kiranbellapu or similar opponents — repeat positions you lost and find improvements.
Review these specific games:
- Loss & tactical lesson: mrbussonyochess — replay the decisive sequence:
- Good attacking model: kiranbellapu win — replay the winning sacrifices and finish (study knight-for-rook tactics and queen mate patterns):

Quick motivation & next steps

Your rating and trend data show you have improved consistently over months with occasional dips — that’s normal. Keep the tactical training up, tighten your responses to queen-side/king-side attacks, and make small opening simplifications to reduce early-game surprises. If you want, tell me which opening you prefer playing as Black and I’ll give a 2-line safe plan you can memorize for rapid games.