Coach Chesswick
Hi Erin, great work lately!
🥇 What you’re already doing well
- Initiative-driven play – In your daily win against Seb1907 you accepted the pawn sacrifice in the Giuoco Piano and never looked back, keeping Black under constant pressure with 21.Re7! and 26.Rd8+.
- Piece activity in simplified positions – Your conversion of the minor-piece endgame (…Bg2–e6–a2) was smooth; you restrained White’s king side pawns before queening the a-pawn.
- Time-management (classical) – In the correspondence games you regularly finish with large clock reserves, showing good discipline about calculating once and recording the line.
🔍 Priority areas to improve
-
Move-order traps in your favourite openings
• In two recent Evans-style games you allowed …Bb4+ too early (Game vs Eggroll1234, move 7 and 31). Review the critical tabiya after 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4.
• Against the Scandinavian you sometimes misplace the queen with Qd4/a5 ideas for Black. Spend one session on the Modern variation: “Scandinavian 3…Qa5”. -
Translating a space advantage into concrete threats
In your Daily win versus Seb1907 you had 30 minutes where your rook on d7 & bishop on c7 dominated, yet Black regrouped with …Nd6/…Ne5. Look for pawn breaks (c4-c5 or h4-h5) earlier so the initiative doesn’t cool off. -
Crazyhouse defence (optional)
Many of the live losses are from optimistic piece drops near your king. Basic rule: never allow a knight or pawn drop on e6/e7/f6/f7 when your king is still in the centre. Practise 5-minute Crazyhouse puzzles to build the reflex.
đź“š Weekly training plan
| Day | Focus | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | Review 3 recent wins & losses (annotations) | 30 min |
| Tue | Opening drill: Italian & Evans (Chessable / flashcards) | 20 min |
| Wed | Middlegame theme: Outposts & pawn breaks | 25 min |
| Thu | Endgame technique (rook + pawn vs rook) | 20 min |
| Fri | Play 3 rapid games; apply the week’s theme | 45 min |
| Sat | Tactics set (40 puzzles) + Crazyhouse defence drills | 30 min |
| Sun | Rest / light video recap | – |
🚀 Next milestones
- Reach 2245 (2022-04-30) + 50 by mastering the first ten moves of your two main openings.
- Add one solid reply to 1.d4 (recommendation: Queen’s Gambit Accepted or Slav) this month.
- Upload two annotated games each week to the club forum for peer feedback.
Progress at a glance
Most instructive recent encounter
Study the critical sequence 21.Re7 Nxc4 22.Rxd7! from your win vs Seb1907 – it shows how activity can justify material sacrifices.
Keep up the energetic style, Erin. With a bit more structure in the transition from advantage to victory you’ll convert games even more cleanly. Happy studying!