Benedikt Jónasson FM

Hi Benedikt Jónasson!

You’ve been playing dynamic, uncompromising chess that is great fun to watch. 2300-plus blitz is no joke, and the quality of many of your wins shows genuine feel for piece activity and initiative.

What you’re already doing well

• Active opening choices. With Black you trust the Modern/King’s Indian structures, while with White you steer toward English/Réti set-ups. You consistently castle early, emphasise development and keep the game flexible.
• Piece coordination. In wins such as the one against purple1szed you doubled rooks on open files and used minor pieces harmoniously to dominate the centre.
• Clock handling. Even in tactical melees you seldom drop far behind on time, a vital skill in 3-minute games.
• Practical decision-making. When the position is unclear you are willing to enter complications instead of drifting, forcing the opponent to solve problems over the board.

Recurring pain-points

• H-pawn over-extensions. Early pushes (h4–h5) in several losses let opponents break with …g6-g5 or …f5, opening lines toward your own king before you were fully developed.
• Loose central pawns. Positions like the loss to kyu13 show d4/e4 pawns becoming fixed targets when you push d5 too early without adequate support.
• Conversion in better endgames. There are games you won on time while still clearly better over the board. Sharpening endgame technique would convert those advantages faster and leave more clock for future rounds.
• Dark-square weaknesses in the Ruy Lopez. In the defeat against secret-account_ao …Qh3, …Rf5, etc. exploited holes created after c3/d4 and an early g-pawn advance.

Targeted training plan

1. Opening refinement
   • Add one solid e4 reply (e.g. 1…e5 or the Sicilian Classical) alongside the Modern to avoid predictable pawn storms.
   • Versus the Ruy Lopez as White, revise sidelines that keep the centre closed and postpone pawn storms until pieces are placed.
2. Middle-game drills
   • Daily 10-minute tactics focused on forks on undefended pieces and queen-rook batteries, the motifs that both win and lose your games.
   • Annotate two of your own recent games per week, writing down why each move was played. Pay extra attention to pawn-structure decisions.
3. Endgame conversion
   • Run tablebase workouts starting from +1.5 to +3.0 positions. Aim to finish within 15 plies—this will teach “technical” moves such as opposition, triangulation and Zugzwang.
   • Study at least one queen-and-rook ending each week; many blitz games simplify into that material balance.
4. Clock discipline
   • Adopt a “30-second safe-zone”: never let your time dip below 30 seconds unless you are already winning by force.
   • When under 1 minute, simplify rather than calculate long forcing lines.

Quick stats

Your peak blitz rating: 2440 (2022-03-28). Well done! Use that milestone as your next benchmark; reaching +50 over peak within six months is realistic with consistent training.

When do you win most?

Consult the visuals below—schedule your serious sessions at the times/days that correlate with your highest performance.

Game snapshots to review

• Model win vs. purple1szed (A16 English): you manoeuvred the knight to d5, exchanged the right minor piece, and converted the extra pawn flawlessly. Save this as a personal “gold standard.”
• Instructive loss vs. kyu13 (B06 Modern): compare move 9 h5?! with centralising alternatives. Note how every tempo spent on the flank allowed Black’s …Nd4 and …exd4 shots.

Next steps

1. Finish annotating the last five games (both wins and losses).
2. Incorporate the opening tweaks above before your next 20 blitz games.
3. Re-check progress in one month; if your average accuracy climbs by even 2-3 %, the plan is working.

Keep the energy high and the pieces active, Benedikt. Good luck at the board!