David Stevanić FM

Recent win — high level takeaway

You secured a win in a dynamic Ruy Lopez style sequence as Black. The game showed your willingness to fight for the initiative, keep pieces active, and convert a complex middlegame into a victory through sustained pressure and accurate trades. The ending featured several tactical exchanges that you navigated with persistence and sharp calculation.

What went well

• Active piece play and pressure on White’s position, especially in the middlegame where you exchanged pieces to keep your initiative.
• Good castling and king safety early on, followed by a timely break to generate counterplay.
• Ability to capitalize on tense moments with precise tactical decisions that helped you gain the upper hand.
• Strong endgame conversion sense — you kept working for active moves and avoided getting tied down by passive defense.

Key ideas that contributed to the win

• Keep pressure against your opponent’s king side and central squares when the position opens, especially after minor piece exchanges.
• Coordinate rooks and queens to maximize activity in open files or diagonals created by pawn breaks.
• When your opponent’s pieces become overextended, look for tactical shots that force concessions or win material.

Areas to improve

• Opening planning and move ordering: In sharp Ruy Lopez structures, have a clear, practical plan for both sides of the pawn chain. Consider studying a few standard Black plans against 1.e4 in this line (e.g., developing knights to f6, contesting the center with ...d5 or ...c5, and choosing a consistent setup for the bishop and rook placement).
• Time management in middlegame battles: Allocate a bit more time to evaluate critical tactical junctures rather than rushing into exchanges. Short, repeated checks of candidate moves can help avoid last-minute pressure.
• Endgame readiness: Practice common endgames that arise after heavy piece exchanges in this opening family (rooks versus rooks with pawns, or minor piece endings). Being comfortable in these endings will help convert more wins and reduce risk of resource depletion.
• Avoid over-ambitious tactical lines if not clearly winning: When the position is murky, a solid, simpler route that keeps multiple plans alive often yields a more reliable path to victory.

Opening insights and practical guidance

Your recent openings show strength in several mainstream setups, with solid performance in Ruy Lopez variants and a number of steady, classical lines. There are also sharp lines (like the Amazon Attack) where results were less favorable. To keep improving, consider the following:

• Strengthen a compact Black repertoire against 1.e4: focus on reliable, principled plans rather than highly offbeat lines when you’re under time pressure.
• Develop a small, repeatable plan for common White setups in each opening you use. For example, against the Ruy Lopez, have a go-to pawn break and piece placement strategy ready for both sides of the board.
• Review one or two representative games from your openings each week to crystallize typical middlegame themes and endgame transitions you gain from them.

Training plan to boost next results

• Daily tactical practice (15–20 minutes) focusing on pattern recognition in typical Ruy Lopez and Sicilian structures.
• Weekly game review: pick one past game (the most recent win and one recent loss) to annotate with a plan for common plans, potential blunders, and alternative moves.
• Endgame drills: practice rook endgames and knight endgames from common middlegame transitions to improve conversion chances.
• Opening study: choose 2–3 openings you enjoy (e.g., Ruy Lopez: Closed and a stable Sicilian line) and build a concise, practical plan for each (development, typical pawn breaks, key piece placements) over the next 4 weeks.

Next steps and options to review

If you’d like, I can annotate the latest win move-by-move to identify precise turning points and suggest alternate lines at critical moments. I can also generate a compact, practice-friendly opening toolkit tailored to how you prefer to play (more solid vs. more dynamic).