Aaron Guthrie FM

Hi Aaron, here’s your personalized performance review

1. Quick Snapshot

• Current performance trend: see
  and
  for when you score best.
• Personal bests: Blitz – 2402 (2024-08-17), Bullet – .

2. Strengths I’m Seeing

1. Pro-active opening play. You’re comfortable seizing space with early e4/d4 thrusts and don’t shy away from sharp systems (e.g. Philidor Exchange in your last win).
2. Good conversion with material advantage. In the win vs. Electropilot you calmly pushed the a- and b- pawns all the way, resisting the urge to “force” things prematurely.
3. Time management under pressure. Many opponents flagged while you still had 60-80 s on the clock—evidence that your practical pace is solid for 3-min games.

3. Growth Areas

1. King safety vs. attacking instinct.
   • Loss vs. marichess (Caro-Kann) shows that castling long without completing development left you vulnerable to simple tactics (…Nxc3+).
   • Tip: after opposite-side castling, remember the “three-pawn rule”: advance pawns only when at least three pieces can join the attack. Otherwise finish development first.
2. Handling piece activity in the Sicilian.
   In several Najdorf/Closed lines you allowed …b5-b4 or …Qa5/Qc3 to hit your queenside in one tempo. Study model games where White meets these plans with a4, Nd5, or timely exchanges to blunt the bishop on g7.
3. Tactical conversion with a lead in development.
   The Scandinavian loss to singular_brain_cell reached this critical moment (after 11…O-O-O):
   

    Qd3 Bf5  Ne4!?

   Instead, the thematic 12. Qxf5+ was winning on the spot. A quick “forcing moves scan” (checks, captures, threats) would have revealed it. 5-minute puzzle rush each day will sharpen this.

4. Opening Notebook

• Against the Caro-Kann: your 5.Ng3  h5 6.h4 line is fine, but learn the quieter 5.Nxf6+ (simpler plans, fewer tactics to dodge).
• With Black vs. 1.e4: you mix Sicilian and Scandinavian. Consider building a single mainline repertoire (e.g. Classical Sicilian) to deepen pattern recognition.

5. Endgame Touch-ups

The long loss vs. Epiphany Peters reached a rook-and-minor-piece ending where your bishop got locked behind its own pawns. Review basic rook-and-pawn endings; remember the principle “rooks belong behind passed pawns.”

6. Action Plan for the Next 2 Weeks

1. Daily: 15 min tactics; focus on double attacks & overloading.
2. Alternate days: play one 10 | 2 game and annotate it—look for missed forcing sequences.
3. Weekend: analyse the following two reference games deeply:
   • A model Caro-Kann main line victory (Karpov – Korchnoi, 1974).
   • A textbook Sicilian Najdorf with …g5 push neutralised (Kasparov – Short, 1993).

7. Highlight Reel

Re-live the tactical finish from your recent win:

Keep up the momentum, Aaron. A bit more discipline in king safety and concrete calculation will push you through the next rating band.