Coach Chesswick
Quick summary
Gerardo Antonio Gracia Alvarez — nice, consistent work in blitz. Your recent run shows concrete strengths: good piece activity, clean tactics in the middlegame and an upward rating trend (recent +56 in the last month, +220 over 3–6 months). Below I summarise the concrete positives from your recent wins and the patterns that led to the losses, then give focused, practical steps you can apply in your daily practice.
Games I looked at (quick links)
- Win vs Strong Very strong — English-style fianchetto / good tactical finish (see example replay)
- Win vs sedrak-matevosyan — Scandinavian handling and conversion
- Losses vs sedrak-matevosyan and Nazar Laptii — king safety and endgame/complications
Replay one of the loss games (useful for post-mortem):
- Critical loss (mate after white king march) — replay:
What you're doing well
- Active piece play: you regularly activate knights and bishops to create tactical opportunities — good harvesting of tactical shots (example: the win vs Strong Very strong where piece coordination and a timely knight capture won material).
- Opening variety with practical results: your repertoire (g3/fianchetto lines, Scandinavian, Caro‑Kann and several Sicilian systems) produces real winning chances in blitz — your opening win rates in several lines are solid.
- Improving trend: your rating trend and recent rating gains show that your training and play are producing results — keep the routines that brought this improvement.
- Conversion awareness: when you get a material or structural edge you tend to press and convert instead of returning material unnecessarily.
Main weaknesses to target
- King safety / king walks in simplified positions — in a recent loss you advanced your king (Ke5 / Kf4 sequence) into a position where the opponent exploited a knight checkmate idea (Ng6#). When the center opens, the active king can become a target.
- Endgame/technical defence under pressure — several losses came from not neutralizing opponent activity or from failing to keep the king safe while simplifying into endgames. You sometimes simplify into positions where opponent gets counterplay (knight jumps to g6, e.g.).
- Opening lines with suboptimal move orders — a few openings (e.g., some Scandinavian and London Poisoned Pawn lines) show you get into slightly worse endgames or tactical sequences; tighten move-order awareness in those systems.
- Occasional tunnel vision in complicated positions — you find tactics well, but sometimes miss a defensive resource from the opponent when focused on your attacking plan.
Concrete fixes & training drills (daily & weekly)
- Daily 10–15 minute tactics: focus on knight forks, mating nets, and removal-of-defender motifs. Target 30–50 puzzles/day with an emphasis on patterns that popped up in your recent games (knight forks and knight+queen coordination).
- Endgame hygiene (3× week, 20–30 min): train basic king-and-pawn endings + knight vs pawn scenarios and typical fortress ideas. Work Lucena/Rook endgame basics and a few knight/multi-piece checkmates so you don’t blunder mates in simplified positions.
- One focused opening session per week (30–45 min): pick the lines you win most with (Sicilian Closed, Caro‑Kann, Amazon Attack style lines) and review 3–5 instructive games in those lines — this increases your practical success rate in blitz.
- Post-game 5–10 minute cleanup: after each session, pick 1 loss and 1 unclear win, run a quick engine check, and write 2–3 bullet takeaways (where you deviated, what tactic you missed, better plan). The habit yields compounding improvement.
- Practical blitz habit: when your king begins to march into the center, ask yourself two checks before moving it: (1) Are there opponent knights/queens with checks on g6/e5/f4? (2) Can I limit counterplay by simplifying/locking pawns first? If answer is "no", avoid centralizing the king yet.
Opening & repertoire tweaks
- Lean into openings where your WinRate is highest (e.g., Sicilian Defense: Closed, Amazon Attack lines, Caro-Kann Defense) — they give familiar middlegames you convert well.
- Patch weaker lines: the data shows lower win rates vs lines like the Alapin and some East Indian setups. Either prepare a concrete antidote (one reliable plan/line) or avoid them in blitz until you’ve studied them.
- For Scandinavian games: practice the typical queen trades and resulting piece play. You already convert well when you trade queens at the right time — reinforce the timing (trade when you gain active knights/bishops).
How to handle the "king walk" situations (practical rule)
- Before moving your king toward the center ask: are there enemy pieces that can check or fork me on the target squares? If yes, delay or eliminate them first.
- When simplifying, favor exchanging the opponent's most active piece (if safe) before advancing the king into the open.
- If you see an incoming knight (Ng6/Nf5 style) calculate the knight’s check squares and whether you have flight squares for the king — if not, keep king protected or retreat slightly.
Short practice plan for the next 4 weeks
- Weekdays: 20–30 min tactics (pattern focus), 10 min reviewing a single loss.
- Twice a week: 40 min opening study (pick 1 system), play 5 blitz games applying the ideas.
- Weekend: 1 longer session (90 min) — play a 15+10 rapid or several 10+5 games to practice the same opening plans under more time, then post-mortem the critical game.
Final notes & encouragement
Your numbers and trend slope show you are on the right path. Small, focused improvements — better king safety checks, short endgame study, and targeted opening polishing — will convert many of those avoidable losses into wins. Keep the momentum: your recent +56 in a month and +220 in 3–6 months proves the methods you use work. Keep tracking one loss per day with the 2–3 takeaways habit.
If you want, I can:
- Annotate one of the specific games move‑by‑move (pick the win or the loss to focus on).
- Prepare a 4-week personalised training schedule with specific puzzle sets and 10 model positions to study.