Elnaz Kaliakhmet WIM

Overall Game Assessment

Elnaz, your recent blitz games show strong strategic understanding and excellent endgame technique, especially in several winning games where you capitalized on positional advantages and converted them effectively.

There is a noticeable pattern of resilience and calculation under time pressure, which is a great asset for blitz play.

Strengths to Build On

• King's Indian Defense: Makogonov Variation – With over 70% win rate, this is a clear strength. Your familiarity and confidence in this opening serve you well.
• Slav Defense – Another area with strong results; continue reinforcing concepts here.
• Endgame technique – Your ability to convert advantages and execute winning plans in complex endgames is impressive, as seen notably in your win against muskratman.
• Good time management – You effectively maintain time, allowing for calm, accurate moves in critical phases.

Areas for Improvement

• Opening consistency: You have some openings with notably low win rates such as the London System: Poisoned Pawn Variation (25%) and the QGD 3.Nc3 Bb4 line (18%). Focusing on mastering these or replacing them with more comfortable lines could improve your overall stability.
• Handling the pressure in complex middlegames: Some losses involve tactical oversights or less precise calculation. Deepening your tactical vision with puzzles or focused study can reduce these errors.
• Opening repertoire balance: You tend to perform unevenly across different openings. A review of your opening choices, developing a more harmonious and reliable repertoire, may help improve your win rate.
• Rating trend focus: Despite solid strength adjusted win rate (~54%), your recent 6- and 3-month rating trends show a slight decline. Identifying the root causes through post-game analysis could help reverse this.

Practical Tips for Next Steps

• Review losses carefully, especially those from openings with below 30% win rates, to understand recurring mistakes or strategic gaps.
• Consider working on your opening preparation by deepening understanding of your weaker openings or introducing new, more reliable ones.
• Continue enhancing your middlegame calculation through tactics training to minimize blunders and sharpen decision making.
• Keep practicing typical endgame scenarios relevant to your preferred openings to maintain your strength in this phase.
• Analyze your time usage patterns — although generally solid, there may be moments where faster decisions could free more time for critical positions.

Encouragement

Your recent games demonstrate clear skill and understanding. With focused refinement on some openings and sharpening your tactical play under time pressure, your performance can bounce back strongly. Keep analyzing your games and stay confident!