Coach Chesswick
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
- 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. - 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.
- 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
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!