Coach Chesswick
Hi Arnold, here’s a focused review of your recent blitz play
What you’re already doing well
- Dynamic piece play: Your wins often feature well–timed pawn storms (g- and h-pawns) that open lines for your bishops and rooks.
- Flexible openings with 1.Nf3 / 1…Nf6: You steer the game into familiar structures (Reti/English, Nimzo-Indian family) and usually reach playable middlegames quickly.
- Tactical alertness: You capitalise on loose enemy pieces (e.g. 15.Nh4–Nf5 ideas, exchange sacs on f6) and are not afraid to calculate concrete forcing lines.
- Rating trend: Your peak blitz rating is already impressive – keep an eye on 2675 (2025-05-07).
High-impact areas to train next
- Time management
• Three of your last five losses were on the clock.
• Try a “10 second rule”: if nothing critical is hanging, move within 10 s to save time for complex moments.
• Play an occasional 5 | 5 session – the increment forces you to finish games instead of flagging, and good habits transfer back to pure blitz. - Opening discipline
• The quick 2.Qh5 ?! versus 878768 878768 back-fired after …Bb4+.
• Build a compact “go-to” repertoire sheet. For example, against 1…e5 add a solid Italian or Scotch line so you don’t improvise with early queen raids.
• As Black in the Sicilian B22 (loss to Aleksandra Maltsevskaya), study the main …d5 break. A 30-minute drill with an engine on that exact structure will pay off fast. - End-game conversion
• In the Ragozin game against Thunderbolt_02 you reached a rook & pawn ending that was still drawable but slipped on technique.
• Add one simple routine: play five randomly generated rook-endgames vs engine per week until you consistently hold K+R vs K+R+2p down. - Pawn-structure awareness
• Your aggressive g-/h-pawn pushes work when the centre is closed; when it’s open (loss vs adoubleedgedgame) they create entry squares.
• Before pushing a wing pawn ask: “Are my central pawns fixed or mobile?” If the answer is “mobile”, postpone the wing attack.
Illustrative critical moment
Have another look at move 22 in the Alapin Sicilian below – after 22.Nd4 you spent 29 seconds and never recovered on the clock.
[[Pgn|[Event "Live Chess"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2025.06.04"] [White "Sanyura"] [Black "belligham2023"] [Result "1-0"] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.c3 e6 5.d4 cxd4 6.cxd4 Nc6 7.Nc3 Nxc3 8.bxc3 d6 9.exd6 Bxd6 10.Bd3 O-O 11.O-O h6 12.Re1 b6 13.Qe2 f5 14.Bc4 Na5 15.Bxe6+ Bxe6 16.Qxe6+ Kh7 17.Bd2 Rc8 18.Rad1 Rc6 19.Qe2 Nc4 20.Bc1 Bb8 21.d5 Rc8 22.Nd4 Qh4 23.g3 Qh3 24.Ne6 Rfe8 25.Rd4 f4 26.Rxc4 f3 27.Qe4+ Kh8 28.Qxf3 Rxc4 29.Qf7 Rg8 30.Bf4 Bxf4 31.Nxf4 Qg4 32.Re8 Rxe8 33.Qxe8+ Kh7 34.Qe5 Ra4 35.Kg2 Rxa2 36.Qe4+ Kg8 37.d6 Qd1 38.Qe6+ Kh7 39.Qxa2 1-0]]Quick “next-week” training menu
- 20 min: Speed-run tactic set (minimum 40 puzzles, 80% accuracy).
- 30 min: Review three master games in the Reti involving the d3–e3–c4 structure you use so often.
- 30 min: Play two 15 | 10 games focusing only on clock discipline.
- 10 min: Update your personal opening file with one new line vs 1…e5.
Progress dashboard (auto-updates)
Hourly performance snapshot:
Weekly trend:
Keep going!
Your attacking intuition is a real asset; pairing it with steadier time usage and a sharper end-game technique will push you well beyond the 2700 blitz mark.