Jacob Chudnovsky FM

Jacob, here’s an overview of your recent play and some targeted advice to help you break through the next rating band.

What you’re already doing well

• Enterprising openings. You mix the Dutch, Pirc, and sharp Sicilian sidelines as Black and are happy to steer White games into the Canal-Attack or anti-Sozin structures. This keeps opponents in unfamiliar territory and often yields early imbalances.
• Tactical alertness. In every recent win you converted dynamic positions with concrete calculation. A nice example is 22.Qc4+! in the Pirc (⬇︎) which forced the king walk that led to mate.
• King-side initiative. The pawn storms with g-pawn thrusts (e.g. vs ProtegoX and vs MASLENITSA) demonstrate a healthy instinct for seizing space and keeping the opponent’s king uncomfortable.

Where easy rating points are leaking

1. Clock management. Three of your last five losses were clear timeouts in playable positions. In the loss to Demon_Lord11 you reached a position where White can force perpetual—or even win—yet flagged. Practical tips:
   • Switch at least some training games to a 3 | 2 cadence to ingrain “move–increment–think”.
   • When ahead materially but low on time, play forcing check patterns and premove recaptures.
   • Adopt a move-trigger at 20 seconds—if your clock dips below this, bail out to the simplest safe line.
2. Over-extension in the early middlegame. Twice you advanced both flank pawns (e4-f4-g4 vs Black’s king in the Sicilian) without finishing development, allowing …d5 breaks that flipped the initiative. Remember the principle%20of%20two%20weaknesses—create one weakness at a time unless the king is already under direct fire.
3. Conversion technique in rook endings. Against vihaan07 you reached a favorable rook-and-pawn race yet drifted into time trouble and missed simple cut-off ideas (…Rf8-f7-d7). Review the Lucena and Philidor templates for confidence in blitz time scrambles.

Opening checkpoints for the coming week

Line	Goal for you
Dutch, 1…f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6	Memorise the move-order that avoids 4.c4 d5 5.Nf3 Bb4+ ideas—use 3…d6 before …e6.
Pirc, 4.h3 & g4 systems	Add the …c6 & …d5 pawn break plan; stops White’s pawn spear and activates the dark-square bishop.
Sicilian Canal, 4.a4	Against …a6, test 5.Bxc6+ objectively; your results are good but engine check suggests 5.Bxd7+ is slightly kinder to Black.

Puzzle themes to drill

• Forward-moving tactics: Interference & deflection combinations (common in your Canal games).
• Resource-saving defenses: Quiet back-rank lifts or perpetual-check ideas when under attack—these cost little clock time once internalised.
• Technique patterns: Lucena & Vancura rook endings—20 reps each in the next week.

Measuring progress

• Keep an eye on your peak rating for Blitz: .
• Use the hourly win-rate chart to see if time-of-day correlates with flag losses:

.
• After each session, tag one game where clock handling was good and one where it wasn’t; quick self-review cements new habits.

Next steps

1. Play a mini-match (20 games) at 3 | 2, applying the time triggers above.
2. Analyse only the conversion phase of each game—skip the opening—and note whether the plan was simplify or speed-up.
3. Re-enter regular 3 | 0 pools and compare timeout frequency on

at week’s end.

Good luck Jacob—tidying up the clock and tightening early pawn pushes should be worth +50-100 blitz points in very short order. Enjoy the climb!