Anna Burtasova WGM

Constructive feedback for Anna Burtasova

💡 Strengths to keep building on

• Versatile opening choices: you handle both 1.e4 (Sicilians, Alekhine) and 1.d4 (Old-Benoni set-ups) comfortably, keeping your opponents guessing.
• Dynamic piece play: several of your wins feature timely pawn breaks (…d5, …c4, f5–f4) that create concrete targets.
• Resilience in sharp positions: even when material down you often generate counter-chances and practical threats, a sign of strong calculation skills.

🎯 Priority areas for improvement

1. Clock management
   • Five recent games (three wins, two losses) were decided on time. • Try the “30-20-10” rule: aim to have ≈30 s on move 20 and 10 s for the final phase, even if it means choosing a simpler continuation.
   
   can help you spot the times of day when your time-scramble performance drops.
2. Handling early queen excursions
   In the Alekhine loss your queen ventured to h5 and h4, giving Black tempi. Consider the safer plan 10.Nf3 and short castling first.
3. Endgame conversion
   Several lost positions were still drawable (e.g. vs Supercampeon64). Review basic rook-endgame techniques such as the Lucena and Philidor positions – see Lucena position.
4. Pawn-structure awareness
   In both Old Benoni games you allowed …d4 or …d5 breaks without a clear plan to meet the passed pawn. Spend a session on typical Benoni structures and prophylactic moves (a4, h3, Re1).

🔎 Snapshot: recent critical moment

The turning point of your latest loss came right after you played 18.Rc3 against Alekhine’s Defence. Black’s 18…Bg4! exploited the pin and dark-square weaknesses.

📈 Quick performance metrics

• Peak blitz rating:
• Win rate by weekday:

🗓️ Action plan for the next two weeks

• Daily: 15 min of tactic drills focusing on pins & double attacks.
• 3 games per day with 5 + 5 time control, annotate the first one without an engine before review.
• Watch one model game in the Old Benoni and one in the Taimanov Sicilian; build a mini file of three “typical plans” for each.
• End of week 2: play a training match (8 games) starting from a rook-and-pawn endgame to reinforce technique.

Stay curious and keep analysing – small, targeted tweaks will lift both your rating and confidence. Good luck, Anna!