Mikhail Bryakin IM

Feedback for Mikhail Bryakin

Hi Mikhail, after reviewing your recent games, here are some constructive observations and suggestions to help you continue improving your chess performance:

Strengths

• Active Piece Play: Your games show a good willingness to activate pieces and generate attacking chances, especially in the middlegame. This creates dynamic tension and practical chances.
• Opportunistic Tactics: You demonstrate a good eye for tactical shots and exploiting opponent inaccuracies swiftly, which often leads to favorable exchanges or winning material.
• Handling Pressure: You frequently put pressure on your opponent’s king position and maintain initiative effectively in complex positions.

Areas for Improvement

• Opening Consistency: Your choice of offbeat openings like the Kadas and King's Fianchetto shows creativity, but sometimes the opening play lacks consistency and preparation. Improving theoretical knowledge in your chosen systems will give you a more comfortable position out of the opening and reduce early inaccuracies.
• Positional Awareness: At times, there are moments where improving the evaluation of positional weaknesses and pawn structures could help you avoid long-term disadvantages. For example, keeping an eye on backward pawns and weak squares can prevent your opponent’s counterplay.
• Endgame Technique: A few games suggest that converting advantageous or equal endgames is an area to work on, particularly in complex rook or minor piece endgames. Solidifying endgame fundamentals will help increase your conversion rate.
• Time Management: You won some games on the opponent's time pressure, which is a good practical factor, but better allocation of your own time can improve the quality of your moves in critical positions.

Recommendations

• Study mainline theory in your openings to build a solid opening repertoire and gain confidence in the early game.
• Work on pawn structures and typical plans in your chosen openings through annotated master games to improve strategic understanding.
• Practice essential endgames regularly — rook endgames, king and pawn endgames, and minor piece endings — to improve your technique under pressure.
• Review your own games, focusing on moments where you may have missed stronger moves or strategic ideas to deepen your chess insight.
• Consider using a mix of slow and rapid games to have more time for calculation and refinement of your plans.

Keep up your fighting spirit and continue working on these areas to realize even better results! Your practical style is a great foundation for progress.

Feel free to send me any games you'd like analyzed in detail or ask about specific positions.