Coach Chesswick
Hi Carly – here’s a quick coaching report on your latest blitz sessions
📈 What’s going well
- Tactics! At 600-rating you already spot forks and loose pieces quickly – e.g. the miniature against pisotmahaba69 where 9…Nxc2+ picked up material and you never looked back.
- Activity over material. In several wins you willingly gave a pawn to open files (…d5 vs the Italian, …h6/ …g5 sac vs low-rated opponents). That spirit is good – we’ll just add a little discipline so it doesn’t back-fire.
- Recent momentum. A +89 rating jump in the last month and a strength-adjusted win rate of 57 % show real improvement. Keep riding that wave!
🔄 Recurring trouble-spots
- Ignoring the g7 square when you castle kingside.
Two of your last five losses ended with Qg7#. In the diagram below your light-squared bishop had just abandoned the long diagonal and mate followed instantly.
- Queen adventures on move 3-6.
• As White you captured a pawn with 3.Qxg4 in the “1…g5” game and resigned four moves later.
• As Black you play early…Qe7/…Qe5+. Sometimes it wins a pawn; sometimes your queen gets chased while you fall behind in development. - Falling for the Nimzo-Larsen (1.b3).
You faced it six times and scored 0-6. The common theme: you played…e5 …Nc6 …Bf5/Bg4, allowed White’s bishop to park on b2 and a queen to swing to g4/g7.
🎯 Three easy fixes for the coming week
- Adopt a “no-loose-bishop” rule after castling.
If you’ve castled 0-0, do not move your dark-squared bishop off the diagonalc7–g3–h2unless (a) the g7 pawn is already defended by another piece, or (b) you are threatening mate in 2. Pause ⏸️ and check for Qg4/Qxg7. - Delay queen moves until pieces are out.
Challenge: In your next 20 games do not touch the queen before move 8 unless you can give check or win a full piece. This single habit will improve your development and king safety. - Prepared reply vs 1.b3.
Play the solid set-up:1…d5 2.Bb2 Nf6 3.e3 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 Be7 0-0. You avoid the g7 issues and reach a normal Queen’s Pawn structure. Spend 10 minutes and copy the first 10 moves to memory.
📑 Quick notes on individual games
- Win vs rustin420 – Italian 4.Ng5. Nice calm defence with 4…d5, but after winning the queen you chased the king for 10 more moves. Look for shorter mates;
20…Bb4+was force-mate in 4. - Loss vs hk8one – Giuoco Piano. Good opening but mid-game you traded into a queen ending down two pawns. Record a mental note: opposite-colour bishops + Queens = dangerous king attacks, prioritise piece activity over pawn grabbing.
- Win vs darkwinter1375 – Pirc. Excellent central break with 12.d4 exd4 13.c3! undermining black’s queen. Keep searching for pawn breaks like this.
🗺 14-day training plan
- Tactics Trainer – 25 puzzles/day, focus on mate-in-2 & “hanging pieces”.
- Opening flashcards:
– Your White repertoire: the simple Italian Game up to move 6.
– Your Black vs 1.b3 & 1.Nf3 (the “d5 Nf6 e6” scheme). - Play two 10-minute rapid games/week and annotate them; blitz is fun but rapid cements the habits.
- Endgame mini-course: king & pawn vs king; queen vs pawn on 7th; bishop vs knight basics.
🌟 Keep it up!
You’re already trending upward (slope ≈ +3 pts/day). Patch the g7 weakness, keep your queen on base until the army is out, and you’ll break 700 in no time. Happy hunting!— Coach Bot 🤖