Coach Chesswick
Hi BerlinRagnar!
You play dynamic, principled chess that already pushed you to 2562 (2019-06-03). Below you will find personalised feedback extracted from the sample of your most-recent games.
What you are doing well
- Opening preparation. In your last six wins you used three different openings (Ruy Lopez, Caro-Kann and the English/Réti set-ups) with confident piece placement and zero early blunders.
- Rapid development & king safety. You consistently castle by move 7 and often reach the middlegame with every minor piece participating. The win over mormegil3698 is a model example – by move 18 your rooks were already doubled on the centre files.
- Tactical alertness. Your 17. Rhe1+ in the miniature versus octoberfast shows good pattern recognition; you spotted an overloaded king and converted cleanly.
- Practical rook activity. Even when material is equal you find active rook placements (e.g. 35.Rd6! in the same Ruy Lopez win) that convert small advantages.
Biggest improvement zones
- Time management. Four of the five losses were decided by either flagging or a blunder made below 10 seconds. Create a habit of using the increment: after every move immediately spend half a second to regain your buffer.
- Defensive end-games. • In the loss to Bernardo Vainzoff Sztokbant you reached a rook-and-pawn ending where 42...♖e4! held the draw, but you drifted into passivity and got mated. • Against ekurtz you missed 41…♖xe6 43…♖xe6 and the skewer on your king. Plan: add 2–3 practical rook-ending drills to each training session.
- Handling the King’s-Indian-Attack structures. Three recent losses (vs jovencata, BanjoKazooieN64, ekurtz) arose from early Nf3–g3 setups where you fell behind in the centre. Study typical KIA plans: a quick e4-e5 pawn break, or timely c4/d4 pushes, instead of slow wing moves that gave Black the initiative.
- Pawns vs pieces in late middlegame. The English loss versus WK_WillianHille shows you grabbed a pawn on d6 but underestimated Black’s passer & rook activity. Use the “material vs. momentum” checklist before capturing: (a) Is my king safe? (b) Are my pieces coordinated? (c) What does my opponent get in return?)
Opening snapshots
| Line | Verdict | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Ruy Lopez – Closed (White) | Solid & successful | Deep-dive into the …d5 Marshall structures that opponents chose against you; your 8.d3 setup is good but 8.Re1 is even more flexible. |
| Caro-Kann – Advance / Short (Black) | Your best scorer | Add the typical …c5 break to your mental checklist; in the win over saag_sinine it arrived on move 10 and seized the initiative. |
| KIA / Réti (White) | Mixed | Memorise the standard pawn chain: d3-e4-f4-Nf3-Nh3–f2 to avoid premature c4 breaks that left your d-pawn weak. |
Four-week action plan
- Week 1: Every day solve 20 timed puzzles; abort the attempt if you drop below 30 sec to mimic game pressure.
- Week 2: Play 10 blitz games exclusively from an inferior rook endgame starting position on a training site; focus on the drawing resources.
- Week 3: Annotate one of your KIA losses without an engine, then compare with Stockfish 15. Note every pawn push that the engine flagged as “inaccurate”.
- Week 4: Create a personal
Time-Budget Rule
(e.g. “never below 15 sec before move 30”) and enforce it in rated games.
Warm-up tactic
White to move and exploit the pinned knight (taken from your win vs Mormegil3698):
At a glance
Keep the passion and your rating will soon cross the next milestone. Good luck and buen juego!