Jerome Almazan

Recent Blitz Performance Overview

You’ve shown a strong willingness to enter sharp, tactical positions in blitz and to press the attack when you have active pieces and king safety. Your openings in these games often lead to dynamic middlegames where your calculation and piece activity can create real problems for your opponents. At times, the complexity pays off and you convert good chances into wins. There are also moments where the pace and pressure lead to overreach or unclear forcing lines, especially as time pressure mounts. Focusing on consistency in the critical middlegame phases and improving endgame conversion will help turn more of those dynamic games into solid results.

Key Strengths You’re Building On

• Willingness to complicate positions in blitz to create practical chances for your opponents.
• Good spotting of attacking ideas when your pieces come together, which can lead to material gains or direct threats.
• Solid king safety and rook coordination when you’ve completed development in the middlegame.

Areas to Improve

• Time management in the middle game: aim to settle on a plan sooner and avoid chasing speculative lines that require long calculation under time pressure.
• Calculation discipline: when you start a forcing line, try to confirm the main variations a few moves deep and evaluate the opponent’s strongest replies before committing.
• Endgame technique: practice converting material or positional advantages into clear wins, especially in rook and minor piece endgames or simplified pawn endings.
• Opening depth: select a small, coherent Black repertoire for blitz (2-3 lines) and study the typical middlegame plans and pawn structures that arise, rather than branching into many variation branches.

Opening Performance Snapshot

Your openings show a mix of solid and tactical lines. A few practical points to consider:

• The Barnes Defense appears to be one of your stronger choices among the listed openings, providing good counterplay and chances in typical blitz structures.
• French Defense lines (including Exchange and related variations) give you active play in many positions, but they can demand precise knowledge of typical pawn structures and plan shifts. Deepening your understanding here will help you convert more middlegame chances.
• Sicilian lines and other sharp defenses offer rich tactical chances; ensure you have a reliable set of responses to avoid getting swept up in highly forcing lines when time is tight.
• Consider narrowing your opening choices in blitz to 2-3 Black defenses you know well, then build a small, practice-focused study plan around the main middlegame themes you’ll encounter.

If you’d like, I can tailor a quick opening study plan around your preferred colors and provide a concise cheat-sheet of typical plans for those lines. jerome

Training Plan and Practice Suggestions

• Daily tactical focus: 15-20 minutes on puzzles that emphasize common blitz motifs (forks, pins, discovered attacks) to improve pattern recognition under time pressure.
• Endgame accuracy: two short weekly drills focused on rook endings and king-pawn endings to improve conversion in real games.
• Opening depth: commit to 2 Black defenses for blitz and study 2-3 representative lines in each, including typical middlegame plans and common pawn structures.
• Post-game review: after each blitz session, annotate 2-3 critical moments where a slightly different plan or a safer line could have yielded a clearer advantage or avoided a loss.
• Time-management drills: practice short (3+1) blitz sessions to build a habit of quick, efficient early development and quick evaluation of forcing lines.

Next Steps

• Select 2 Black defenses to specialize in for blitz over the next couple of weeks and build a compact, practical repertoire around them.
• Start a weekly 20–30 minute review of 2-3 recent blitz games to identify patterns in mistakes and successful ideas, and implement small targeted changes.
• Share a specific game you’d like reviewed in detail, and I’ll provide a move-by-move critique focusing on decision points and alternative plans.
• If you want a quick, personalized opening plan, use this placeholder to guide your next steps: Opening training plan