Quick summary
Nice, Anne — you're creating concrete attacking chances in your blitz and you keep the initiative often. The recent games show strong piece activity and the ability to finish tactical opportunities. At the same time, a few recurring themes are costing you games: time management in long complications, some endgame technique issues (especially rook endings and passed‑pawn races), and occasional opening familiarity gaps that let opponents generate counterplay.
What you did well (patterns to keep)
- Active piece play: you repeatedly bring rooks and queens into the attack quickly — that pressure creates practical chances in blitz.
- Good tactical awareness: in the win vs Robin Duson you found forcing continuations around the kingside that led to decisive material/tempo gains.
- Creating and using targets: you spot weak squares and enemy back‑rank or loose pieces and punish them instead of just shuffling.
- Opening flexibility: your repertoire includes solid results with the French/Caro‑Kann lines and the Colle — keep those as “go‑to” systems when you want reliability.
Key areas to improve (high impact)
- Time management in sharp middlegames — you often get into long tactical sequences and the clock becomes the deciding factor. Treat critical moments more like slower games: invest an extra 5–10 seconds to verify tactics and checks. See time trouble.
- Rook and queen endgames — several losses came after simplifications where precise technique or an active defense was required. Practice basic winning and drawing rook endgames and common queen vs rook motifs.
- Prophylaxis / opponent threats — in a few games your pieces became active but your king or a pawn structure was left vulnerable to counterplay (knight jumps, passed‑pawn pushes). Before launching an attack, ask “what is my opponent threatening next?”
- Specific opening lines with mixed results (e.g., some Ruy Lopez lines) — tighten the small theory gaps so you aren’t surprised by counterthrusts like ...g5/…c4 or piece sacrifices that change the nature of the position.
Concrete practice plan (weekly, practical)
- Daily 12–18 minutes tactics (blitz puzzles) focused on forks, discovered attacks, and back‑rank motifs — 3 sessions a week set aside for slower, harder puzzles (no clock).
- 2× per week: 30–45 minutes endgame study — rook endgames, king + pawn vs king, basic queen vs rook; drill the Lucena and Philidor ideas and 1 practical conversion per session.
- Opening checklist (15–20 minutes twice weekly): pick 2 Ruy Lopez sub‑lines you play most and prepare typical pawn breaks and plans (not just moves). Use short annotated model games rather than large theory dumps.
- 1 slow game weekly (15+10 or 30+0) just for practice — force yourself to use the extra time in critical positions. Review that game with an engine only after you’ve made your own notes on turning points.
- Post‑mortem habit: after each blitz session pick 1 loss and 1 win and write 3 turning moves for each — what you missed, what you did well, and the one lesson to apply next session.
Short in‑game checklist (use before every critical move)
- King safety: is my king safe if I open lines?
- Tactical shot check: any checks, captures, or threats for both sides in one‑move and two‑move depth?
- Piece activity vs pawn structure: does simplification help me or my opponent?
- Time: do I need to spend more clock here or simplify and avoid a long complication?
Game snapshots — review these key moments
Win vs Robin Duson — a clean attacking game (Ruy Lopez). Reconstruct and replay the critical sequence to see how the kingside tactics and piece activity built up:
- Opening: Ruy Lopez (C78)
- Replay the game here:
Loss vs Robin Duson — long, technical struggle where counterplay and passed‑pawns decided it. Replay the late middlegame and endgame to spot where simplifications or a different rook endgame technique would have changed the result:
- Opening: Ruy Lopez (C77)
- Replay the game here:
Next steps for your next session
- Start with a 12‑minute tactics warmup, then play three 3|+3 blitz games. After each game, spend two minutes identifying the single turning move you missed or misplayed.
- Schedule one 30‑minute endgame session this week — focus on rook endgames and one pawn races where the defender must keep the king active.
- Before your next tournament or rating block, pick two key Ruy Lopez positions from your losses and memorize the typical plan (pawn break, ideal piece placement, when to trade).
- If you can, annotate one lost game move‑by‑move (without engine first) then check with an engine — that habit rapidly reduces repeat mistakes.
If you want, I can produce a 4‑week training schedule tailored to your openings, or generate a short annotated report of one of the two games above (pick win or loss) with 3 concrete moves you could have improved.