AndrewRivedal

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What you are doing well

• Killer Instinct in Tactics. Your wins often come from forcing tactical sequences early (e.g. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 Bg4 4.Ne5 Bxd1 in your miniature vs rexalicious2). This sharp eye is a real asset at bullet/blitz speeds.
• Active Piece Play. Whether with 3.Bc4 against the Philidor or 5.Bg5 in the QGD, you usually aim to develop quickly and put immediate pressure on your opponent.
• Peak Rating. You have already achieved an impressive 2764 (2025-02-12). Maintaining that level shows strong overall understanding.

Recurring Pain-Points

1. Time-Management.
   Four of your last five losses were “won on time” by StandardDistribution. In several of those games you still had a playable position (e.g. after 8…Nxd4 in the King’s Fianchetto 1-minute game) but were down to single-digit seconds. You are spending too many seconds in the opening.
2. Early Queen Adventures.
   Examples: 3.Qf3 vs the Scandinavian, 7.Qb5⁺/8.Qh5 in the Alekhine/Scandinavian hybrid. When they work you win fast, but when they don’t you lose both tempi and time on the clock. Against masters the queen will get chased while your clock bleeds.
3. Loose King Safety in Bullet.
   In the loss on 24 Feb (…b5#) your king walked to c4 with plenty of pieces still on the board. Risk-taking is fine, but the pattern suggests you sometimes forget basic air-holes and flight-squares when low on time.

Action Plan for the Next 30 Days

• Adopt a “Bullet Book.” Limit yourself to two main openings as White and two as Black that you can play almost on autopilot. The goal is to save 10-15 seconds in the first 10 moves.
  • White: 1.e4 with Nf3, d4, Bc4 vs e- and d- pawn defences.
  • Black: a simple …e5 setup vs 1.e4 and …d5/…Nf6 vs 1.d4.
  Drill these in Puzzle Rush style until the first critical position is muscle-memory.
• “Two-Second Rule.” In bullet, never spend more than two seconds on a single move before move 20 unless it is a check, capture, or mate. Use pre-moves for forced recaptures.
• Replace Early Queen Moves with High-Yield Alternatives.
  Try 3.Nf3 against the Scandinavian (going into an improved Panov structure) and 4.Nf3 instead of 4.Qf4 in the Modern Scandinavian. You will keep initiative without risking the queen.
• Endgame Mini-Sessions. Three times a week solve five tablebase-verified rook-and-pawn studies with a 30-second per-move limit. This builds “quick-calculation stamina” for time-trouble endings.
• Review Critical Games. Load your own PGNs and press “?” whenever you dropped below 10 s on the clock. Ask: “Was that think-time necessary?” If not, set a mental trigger to move faster in analogous positions.

Illustrative Example

The diagram below shows the moment you were already better but lost on time. Compare the same position played twice—one as a loss, one as a win:

With 9.Qxd4 Nxd4 your position is still playable (engine ≈ +0.3) yet the clock hit 0:00. In practice, the faster reply is 7.dxe5, sidestepping the whole …exd4 fork idea.

Progress Tracking

Hour-by-hour and day-by-day performance widgets are available below; use them weekly to verify that your time-management focus is paying dividends.

Final Encouragement

Your tactical eye is already elite. Combine it with disciplined clock-handling and safer opening choices, and you will convert far more of those promising positions into wins—before the flag falls. Good luck, and enjoy the grind!