Renzo Ramondino FM

Hi Renzo!

Congratulations on your recent surge to 2362 (2025-06-08) and some very instructive wins. Below is a personalised review of your last playing streak together with concrete, achievable goals for the next few weeks.

1. Opening trends

• Black vs 1.e4 – O’Kelly Sicilian (…a6 & …e5)
  • You score well when White drifts into an early Maroczy set-up, yet the two recent losses to swop1107 & wanwan12300000 show that the critical line 5.Nxc6 / 6.Nf5 still causes structural headaches. Add one fast sideline to your repertoire (e.g. 5…d6 6.Nd5 Be7) and memorise the first 8 moves.
  • Study one thematic game where Black calmly reroutes the c6-knight to e6 and breaks with …f5 later – it addresses exactly the problems that arose in your loss on 01-06.
• White vs French & Caro-Kann
  • The KIA with 3.Qe2 has given you dynamic positions but you often fall behind in development. Consider deferring Qe2 until after Nbd2/O-O.
  • Against the Caro-Kann you love the two-knights line (Nc3–Nf3) yet your own queen becomes exposed (see loss to GHOULCNCO). Inject one early pawn break with h4-h5 or the positional Bb5+ idea to reduce queen moves.

2. Middlegame decisions

• Over-extension of flank pawns – In several games (e.g. 01-06 vs ClancyTom47) advancing g-pawn & h-pawn without pieces behind left dark-square holes. Use the “two-guard rule”: if only one piece protects an advanced pawn, delay the push or bring a second defender first.
• Exchange choices – Good instinct to trade queens in the winning miniature vs Rostropovich1. In the lost PGN below you missed a crucial intermediate move (zwischenzug). Replay it once with arrows and set the tactic as a puzzle – that’s the fastest way to store patterns.
  
  
  

3. Endgame & technical phase

• Minor-piece endgames – Versus alambicado you reached a winning R+N against B+R rook ending but drifted after 35…c4. Practise the “Lucena” and “bridge-building” rook ideas three times in a row until you can do them blindfold.
• Converting material – You occasionally keep all pieces when a clean liquidation would simplify the win (see latest win vs gmMaTadoR). Adopt the guideline “Trade when ≥ +4 according to intuition/engine” during post-game analysis.

4. Time management

You average 20-25 seconds per critical move in the first 25 ply, but below 5 seconds in the last 10 (loss vs GHOULCNCO). Try the 30-20-10 rule for 3-minute games:

1. After move 10 – keep ≥ 2:30 on the clock.
2. After move 20 – keep ≥ 1:40.
3. Enter any ending with ≥ 0:45.

Use a simple over-the-board countdown to simulate the pressure.

5. Psychological habits

• Resilience – Great job bouncing back with three straight wins after the 01-06 losing streak.
• Premoves – Two losses ended after premoved recaptures on f5/f4. Force yourself to disable premove until you have ≤ 15 seconds.

6. Suggested weekly routine

1. Play two slow 15|10 games and annotate them yourself before consulting any engine.
2. Solve 20 tactics/day filtered for “zwischenzug” & “interference”.
3. Watch one grandmaster game in the Maroczy with Black and build a mini-file of key plans.

Progress tracker

Bookmark this answer and revisit in a month. Add your own graphs for motivation:

Good luck, keep enjoying the game and feel free to ask for a follow-up once you cross 2350 blitz!