Daniel Fernandez GM

Hi Daniel – personalised post-game report

1. Rating & activity overview

You are hovering near your historical highs of and . The volume graphs ( and ) show two clear patterns:

• a dip in performance after the 3-hour mark of each session – fatigue management is a real factor;
• week-end slumps, especially Sunday evening. Consider shorter, better-focused sparring then.

2. Opening trends

• Caro-Kann (both colours). • As White you master the Tal/Advance set-ups – see the clean win vs Kyle Yiwen Wang. • As Black the game against chesssssandwich showed problems in the rare 2.Nf3 line: an early …Qb6 left c6 & e5 weak.
  Action → add the classical …Bf5 system to keep the queen flexible.
• Benko-type structures with White. In the daily win vs toby_2_emperor you neutralised the queenside counter-play with 12.Nc4 and 16.b6! Excellent strategic judgment – keep expanding this repertoire.
• Ruy Lopez (White). Two January losses sprang from routine moves (h3, Re1, d4) against Modern-Steinitz set-ups. Mix in the Nbd2-f1-g3-h4 plan to vary pawn-structures and create fresh problems.

3. Middlegame & tactical profile

Your conversion ability is lethal once the initiative is secured – the miniature vs blakkat1 is textbook.

Strengths: piece activity, open-file pressure, king hunts.

Weaknesses: underestimating opponent counter-play on the c-file and occasional over-forcing of lines that fizzle out.

4. Critical moment to review

[[Pgn|1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bb5+ Nc6 5.Bxc6+ bxc6 6.Ne5 Qb6 7.O-O Nf6 8.d3 e6 9.c4 Nd7 10.cxd5 Nxe5 11.Bf4 Ng6 12.Be3 Qxb2|fen|8/pp3ppp/2p1p3/3P4/1B2P3/3P1B2/Pq3PPP/R2Q1RK1 w - -]

After 12…Qxb2 you played 13.Qd2? and drifted into an inferior end-game. Calculate 13.Nd2! instead (idea : 13…exd5 14.Qa4) – queens stay on, the initiative remains yours and the b-pawn can even become bait.

5. End-game alert

The few games that reach rook endings – e.g. the time-trouble loss vs Bharath Subramaniyam.H Harishankkar – reveal gaps in basic technique. Schedule one weekly session devoted purely to:

1. Philidor & Lucena rook vs pawn;
2. four-pawn rook endings (2 vs 1 on the same wing);
3. pawn vs knight practical studies.

6. 30-day action plan

• Play two annotated rapid games per day – no premoves, write a one-sentence note on every critical decision.
• Add the “Rook vs Pawn” lesson set to your warm-up routine.
• Test a new Caro-Kann line (4…Bf5 or 3…c5) in five blitz games before deploying it in rapid.
• Study 10 classic Benko games by Kasparov to sharpen your exchange-sac intuition.

7. Final thought

Your dynamic instincts and tactical vision already place you well above master level. Couple them with steadier structure & end-game technique and you will convert far more of those promising positions into points. Keep the curiosity high and enjoy the climb!