Elena Pershina WFM

Elena, here is your personalised post-tournament review

Overall, you played some very energetic chess in the Early Titled Tuesday event. Your current peak stands at 2443 (2025-04-08), and the activity charts (

What you are doing well

• Tactical alertness – combinations such as
  
  against Erik Blomqvist demonstrate sharp calculation and confidence in dynamic positions.
• Piece activity from the opening – whether in the English (early Qa4/Qb5 and pawn grabs) or your Chigorin-style set-ups with ...Bg4 and ...c5, your pieces rarely sit passively.
• Conversion of initiative – the mating attack vs Trojan-Knight finished with Rg5# shows you convert when the moment arrives.

Main growth areas

• Clock management – three of your five losses were on time while the position was still defensible. You sometimes reach move 20 with <45 s on the clock. Make “time checks” a habit on moves 10, 20 and 30. If you are below the average of 6 s per move, simplify or speed up.
• Critical decision-making under pressure – in the loss to Caracternin (24…Nxd4!) you rejected the safer 24…Nxd4 25.Qxd4 Bxd1 line until time trouble forced it. Train with increment-free 1-minute drills to normalise quick critical choices.
• Endgame resilience – endgames such as the Slav vs pavel_skatchkov slipped despite material balance. You relied on tactics that weren’t there once queens came off. A weekly diet of basic rook-and-pawn studies will translate directly to more half-points at your level.

Opening notes

Training plan for the next two weeks

1. Clock discipline circuit – 15 daily 3-minute games with a self-imposed “move in <5 s” rule for the first 12 moves.
2. Tactics – 40 puzzles/day, rating 2400-2600. Emphasise zwischenzug (zwischenzug) motifs which appear frequently in your English structures.
3. Endgame micro-goals – play out 20 rook-and-three-pawn vs rook-and-three-pawn endings against an engine, focusing purely on clock management and the principle of the second weakness.
4. Opening refresh – create a four-line flashcard deck covering (a) 1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 e5 3.Bg2 c6, (b) 1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bf4 c5, (c) Slav …g5 traps, (d) English early …Bb4+ sidelines. Ten minutes/day is enough to keep them sharp.

Mindset reminder

You’ve shown you can beat 2600-rated opposition when the initiative is yours. Treat every timeout as a data point, not a failure, and keep celebrating the tactical masterpieces you are already producing.

Good luck, and see you at the next Tuesday Blitz!