Bogdan Basko NM

Personalised Feedback for Bogdan “Bassyak97” Basko

Your Current Shape

• Peak blitz rating so far: 2750 (2025-06-15) – a clear sign you are already operating at an advanced level.
• Activity charts:

What You Are Doing Well

• Dynamic opening choices. In your recent wins you handled the Reti–Dutch Hybrid, Najdorf and Tartakower QGD with confidence, showing good grasp of structure and typical piece placement.
• Tactical alertness under pressure. In your 1-0 win vs. Samuel Fieberg you found the resource 29.e6! followed by the neat mating net on move 56. This illustrates excellent calculation skills in sharp positions.
• Practical end-game tenacity. Against lipauska3 you converted a tricky R+Q vs. king ending with only seconds left – proof you can keep the head cool when material is thin.

Primary Areas to Improve

1. Time management – your #1 leak.
   Five of your last seven losses were flagged positions where you were not objectively lost (e.g. vs. Iwo Godzwon, julinha97, Teinis). At move 30 in each of those games you were already under 25 s while the opponent still had >50 s.
   • Adopt a “minimum time per move” rule (e.g. never drop below 10 s before move 20 in 3 | 0).
   • Use forcing sequences to premove – recaptures, obvious checks and “single legal moves”.
   • Practise with 3 | 2 or 5 | 0 until the habit of quick decision-making becomes automatic.
2. Converting the initiative.
   In the loss to Iwo Godzwon you won a pawn with …21…Nc5 but then drifted – the queen-rook battery arrived and you never regrouped.
   • When you seize the initiative, ask “how do I increase pressure while simplifying my calculation?” Often the answer is to trade off the opponent’s attackers (e.g. …Be7-g5-e3+ earlier).
   • Study model games by Topalov or Nakamura where they tuck the king, then systematically double on the open file.
3. Opening depth vs. breadth.
   You score well in Najdorf positions you know, but struggled in a Closed Sicilian (Trendle) and a Makogonov King’s Indian (julinha97).
   • Keep the Najdorf as your main weapon but prepare an anti-g3 system (…g6 lines) so Closed-type games do not take you out of book on move 6.
   • Against 1.d4, your Tartakower was convincing – double-down on this instead of mixing in off-beat Benoni/King’s-Indian move-orders unless you have prep time.
4. Defensive technique & prophylaxis.
   Several lost games featured late queen invasions (…Qa5+, …Qh4) against an uncastled king. A single quiet move (h6, a6, Re8) would have prevented the tactic.
   • After each opponent move, force yourself to ask “what is the threat?” – a classic zwischenzug habit.
   • Run engine blunder-check specifically on your losses and tag every move that ignored a threat – you’ll see the pattern.

In-Depth Example – Attack Converted Correctly

Replay the critical phase (moves 24-35) of your win vs. PositionalPanther and note the re-routing of the rook from f1-h1-h6:

Key takeaway: once the pawn wedge on e5/e6 was established, every move either opened a file or added a piece to the attack – no time wasted.

Training Recommendations (next 4-week block)

Motivation Corner

“The ability to move when it is time to move stands above the ability to find the best move.” – Alexander Alekhine

Keep sharpening your tactical edge, but remember that delivering the move on time is a part of the move itself.

Good luck, Bogdan! Feel free to share your annotated games any time – I’m happy to dive deeper.