Tacoma Talseth

Coaching Feedback for Tacoma Talseth

1. What you are already doing well

• Tactical alertness: In several wins you spotted winning forks (e.g., 17.Nxc6! and 26.Nd4!) and direct mating nets. Keep sharpening this eye for tactics.
• Opening variety: You handle both 1.e4 and the Caro-Kann as Black. This keeps opponents out of their comfort zones and widens your chess vocabulary.
• Playing for the initiative: Even in bullet you often seize space and push your h-pawn to harass the enemy king. Maintaining the initiative is a valuable habit.

2. Biggest improvement priorities

1. Time management & blunder control
   • Five of your recent losses were on time or from one-move blunders with <10 s left.
   • Practical fix: add two 15|10 rapid games per week. The extra increment forces you to calculate instead of pre-moving.
   • Use the final 10 seconds to ask “What can my opponent do to me?” before you release the piece.
2. King safety in the middlegame
   Games against ThePennypacker and OhNoHungMyQueen collapsed because your king never found shelter.
   • Castle early unless you have a concrete reason not to.
   • When you launch a flank pawn storm (…h5/h4 or …g5), double-check the light squares you leave behind.
3. Critical moments in the Caro-Kann
   • After 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.c3 (main line) your plan is …Qc7, …e6 and …Bd6, not …Qa5 which walks into Nf3–e5 ideas.
   • Work through 10 annotated Caro-Kann games this week; pause after move 10 and guess the plan.
4. Finishing won positions
   You converted several pawn endings smoothly (good!), yet the loss to OhNoHungMyQueen shows hesitation when ahead.
   • Drill basic R+P vs R and queen vs pawn mates until you can perform them with >30 s left.

3. Illustrative moment

The following bullet fragment cost a full point but is also a great study exercise—there is a simple deflection tactic that saves the game:

Instead, 17…Bg4? allows a queen trade that fails to address the mate threat. The resource 17…+-? (challenge: find it!) equalises immediately. Spotting such zwischenzugs will lift you to the next level.

4. Action plan for the next two weeks

• Daily: 20 tactics on “Rated Puzzle Rush” stopping after the first mistake—quality over quantity.
• 3 rapid games: annotate one yourself, then compare with an engine.
• Opening focus: build a one-page Caro-Kann “road-map” of typical piece placements.
• Endgame flashcards: basic king-and-pawn, opposition, and critical squares (10 minutes).

5. Snapshot of your progress

Use these dashboards to keep track:

• Peak Blitz rating: 1471 (2024-05-06)
• When you score best:
• Weekly trend:

6. Motivation corner

You are already hovering around the 1450 mark in bullet. Eliminating one blunder per game is worth at least 150 rating points. Stay curious, review every loss, and celebrate the small improvements—those stack up fast!

See you at the next training session. Good luck and good moves!