Coach Chesswick
Hi Thomas, here’s your personalised post-match report
Quick stats
• Personal best: 2391 (2021-12-07)• Recent form:
Your current strengths
- Initiative-oriented play. In the Queen’s Gambit Accepted game against tocastleornottocastle you seized space with 6.d5! and never let Black develop counter-play.
- Tactical alertness. Sequences such as 19.Nfd5! Nxd5 20.Rxd5! showed good calculation under time pressure.
- Opening breadth. With White you handle 1.d4, 1.c4 and 1.e4 systems; with Black you alternate between French, Scandinavian and Queen’s Indian structures, keeping opponents guessing.
Areas to focus on next
- Clock management. Three of the last five decisive games were lost on time from equal or better positions (e.g. vs. dimithegreatest2009). Consider adopting a “minimum 5-second move” routine when you already see a safe continuation.
- Simplifying against lower-rated opponents. You occasionally keep complications alive (see the Bishop’s Opening loss) instead of steering toward a clean end-game where your technique would dominate.
- Prophylaxis. Several setbacks came from under-estimating opponent pawn breaks (…c5 in your French games, …b5 in the Scandinavian). Add a brief “what can they do next?” scan before committing to moves.
Opening snapshots
Queen’s Gambit Accepted – Central Variation✔ Excellent use of the passed d-pawn. Keep revisiting the resulting rook end-games to fine-tune conversion technique.
Bishop’s Opening – Vienna hybrid (time-forfeit loss)
✖ You invested 90 seconds on 8…Ng4 ?! and drifted into a lost time scramble. Against sub-1000 opposition, simpler moves (8…d6 or 8…d5) maintain the advantage and save time.
Practical action plan
- Clock drills. Play three 3|2 games where your only goal is to finish with >30 seconds on the clock. Review them for quality after.
- The “pause & predict” exercise. After your opponent moves, spend 3 seconds asking “What is their next threat?”—a mini-prophylaxis habit.
- End-game polishing. Dedicate 15 minutes/day this week to rook-and-pawn endings; they arise frequently from your QGA structures.
Suggested study resources
• 10-minute daily tactics set to “Intermediate-Advanced”.• One annotated GM game in the French Advance each day (focus: handling …c5 breaks).
• Twice a week, a 30-minute session of “blindfold” bishop vs. knight endings to sharpen calculation depth.
Keep up the dynamic play, Thomas! Addressing these practical issues should convert several near-misses into wins and push you beyond your current peak.