Hi bear856–coach’s notebook
Quick snapshot
- Peak blitz rating: 2514 (2024-09-12)
- Your activity curve:
- Best days to play:
Your competitive identity
You’re an enterprising d4 / English player as White and rely on the Slav …Bf5 and Caro-Kann / King’s Indian hybrids as Black. These systems suit your dynamic style: you frequently generate imbalance early and trust your tactical vision to carry the day.
Signature strengths
- Activity over material. You often give a pawn (e.g. 17…cxd4 in your win vs RockTroll) to seize the initiative and keep Black pieces tied down.
- Tactical alertness. The combo 29.Rxe4 Nf3+! in your most recent Slav win shows you spot forcing moves quickly.
- End-phase conversion when ahead. When you reach a clear extra pawn or passed pawn you usually finish efficiently (see 36.c6! in the KID game).
Recurring blind spots
- King safety in unbalanced middlegames
– Loss vs wadsy27: after 10.Nb5 Na6 your king remained in the centre and the f-pawn push (18…fxe4) opened lethal files.
– Loss vs ChampoulaDourada: Pg 13.g4 …Bg6 14.Nh4? allowed …Re8 and queen-side counterplay. - Premature pawn storms. Both h- and g-pawn thrusts sometimes weaken your own king more than the opponent’s (see 15.g4?! in the Tango loss).
- Clock management. Four of the seven recorded defeats were on time in roughly level positions. The typical pattern: ⩾1 min edge early, then heavy think around moves 15-25 and a scramble later.
- Technical endgames vs strong opponents. In the English loss you reached a rook-plus-pawns ending only one pawn down, yet resigned in a drawable table-base position (diagram at move 54).
Game-focus: what to take away
Slav success (Black vs nimzo31) – critical moment
You calmly steered into a good-knight-vs-bad-bishop ending. Excellent choice of 18…Qd3! to keep queens active for one move and force the structural concession.
Upgrade: on 22…fxe3 you had 22…Qe4! first, maintaining two connected passed pawns with tempo.
English loss (Black vs wadsy27) – where it slipped
- 9…Bc2 was thematic but risky before castling; the follow-up 11…f6 froze your dark squares.
- 17…e5? opened the position while your king was still stuck on g5-f5 later. Prefer 17…Ne7 → 0-0-0.
Targeted training plan (next 4-6 weeks)
| Theme | Why | Action items |
|---|---|---|
| King safety & pawn storms | Most losses traced to self-inflicted weaknesses |
• Solve 20 mins/day on King attacker vs defender puzzles. • Annotate your own “g/h-pawn push” games and ask “Was my king safer afterwards?” |
| Time management | Frequent flagging in equal positions |
• Adopt a 15-second minimum move rule until move 15. • Practise 5 + 5 games focusing on playing simple plans quickly. |
| Slav repertoire depth | Your main defence, but top players will test the 5.a4 & 6.Ne5 lines |
• Build a mini-file covering 5.a4 …e6 6.e3 & 5…Bf5 7.Ne5. • Play three training games vs engine at depth 12 starting from move 5 tabiya. |
| Technical rook endings | Resignations in drawable endings |
• Work through Chapters 1–3 of “100 Endgames You Must Know.” • Play “rook-and-four-pawns vs rook-and-four” sparring positions vs a friend/engine. |
Mindset & routine
Remember: calculate forcing lines before launching pawn storms, and trust basic endgame principles (activity + passed pawns) even when low on time. Logging a brief voice note after each game about one decision you’d change will accelerate improvement.
Keep up the creative play, and let’s aim to convert more of those sharp middlegames into clean endgames. Good luck at the board!