Coach Chesswick
Hi Billy — constructive feedback after your Freestyle Friday run
What’s working
- Nerve under pressure: Several opponents flagged in lost positions (e.g. Orest_Vovk, QuintilianoR). You keep the game complicated and give yourself chances, a valuable skill in 3 + 1 time controls.
- Initiative-first mindset: Many of your wins feature early pawn breaks (…d5, f5 / f4) and piece activity that force practical problems. The checkmate vs. Garv Gaur is a textbook example.
- Fast adaptation to Chess960: Castling and king safety habits are sound; you rarely leave your king in the centre for long even with scrambled starting positions.
Top 3 priorities
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Time management
- Eight of your last ten losses were on the clock while the position was still playable.
- Goal for next week: reach move 20 with ≥40 % of your starting time in at least 70 % of games.
- Practical tip: verbalise “safe move” when under 10 seconds; play a solid move and hit the clock instead of searching for perfection.
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Pawn-structure awareness
- Bird setups (f4 / f5) often left you with weak dark squares (see loss vs. Takate20).
- Exercise: for every game this week, screenshot the structure after move 15 and label the pawn levers you plan to use or must defend.
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End-game technique
- In the Anton_Demchenko game you were two pawns down but still drawable; instead you blitzed pawn pushes and lost on time.
- Study plan: 15 minutes daily on basic rook-pawn endings; aim for 50 correct puzzles on Chess.com’s Drills “Rook vs. Passer”.
Opening queue for the coming week
- With White: Replace early b3 in Queen-pawn starts with c4/e3 first to reduce the number of targets Black can hit.
- With Black: When you answer 1.f4 with …f5, follow the classical Bird-from-Black plan: …g6, …Bg7, …Nf6, …d6. Your current …e5 line leaves the e-file loose.
Quick reference stats
Peak blitz rating: 2807 (2025-04-15) | Peak bullet rating: 2916 (2025-04-16)
Activity snapshots
Game to replay
Revisit your tactical knockout vs. chessdragon7161 — the queen sacrifice idea on move 35 is worth adding to your pattern library.
Next-steps checklist
- ⏰ Play one session/day using “move confirmation” to slow yourself down for the first 10 moves.
- ♟️ Complete 10 pawn-structure puzzles (search “Isolated Queen’s Pawn” and “Hanging Pawns”).
- 🏁 End each session with one rook end-game drill.
- 📝 Keep a one-sentence reflection after every game: “Why did I win/lose?” Patterns emerge fast.
Stick to this mini-plan for a week and you should see immediate rating stability and fewer clock meltdowns. Feel free to send me two annotated games for deeper review whenever you’re ready. Good luck!