Duc Dung Nguyen FM

Hi Duc Dung Nguyen!

Great work maintaining a ~2500 blitz level (current 2518 (2024-12-02)) and playing a lot of high-quality games each day. Below is a concise review of your recent performances together with actionable training ideas.

What you are already doing well

• Flexible opening repertoire. You comfortably switch between 1…c6 (Caro-Kann), Queen’s Indian structures and various English setups. This keeps opponents guessing and shows a good understanding of typical pawn structures.
• Dynamic piece activity. In your last win against pamwadutou you used the …c5 break plus a timely …Qa5+ to seize the initiative and never let go. Your pieces flowed toward the enemy king, a model game that is worth re-reading (
  
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• Converting extra material. When ahead you rarely let the game drift; you centralise rooks quickly and look for forcing tactics to simplify.

Biggest improvement opportunities

1. Time management.
   • 4 of your last 6 losses were on time in 60-sec games where you were still equal or better on the board.
   • Recommendation: play a mini-session of 3 + 2 each day to practise making one quick candidate-move scan (checks, captures, threats) before every move. This habit carries over to bullet.
2. King safety & dark-square control.
   • Against Nova Stone you allowed 23.Rh3# because …f6 weakened g7/h7 and the queen left the back rank.
   • Drill: set up a board with a black pawn on f6, bishop on b7 and queen on h6; let the computer attack and defend 10 times. Focus on prophylactic moves such as …Kf7 or …Qh5.
3. Opening fine-tuning.
   • Caro-Kann, Advance 4.h4. Consider 4…h6 instead of 4…h5 to keep g5 under control without fixing the pawn.
   • English versus …f5 (Anglo-Dutch). In the loss to volvo333 your queenside play (15.c5) was strong, but 18.Nxe5?! cost too much time. Evaluate such pawn sacrifices more critically; ask “what if the attack fizzles?”

Training plan for the next two weeks

Quick reference corner

• Most common missed tactic: fork.
• Remember to look for the defensive zwischenzug.
• Useful statistics:
   

Closing words

Your tactical eye and willingness to enter sharp positions are real strengths. By tightening up the defence of your own king and managing your clock a bit better, you are well on track for 2600 blitz.

Good luck with your training, and enjoy the journey!