Coach Chesswick
Hi Felix_0b1! 👋 Here is some personalized feedback to help you level-up.
1. Quick snapshot
Peak Blitz rating: 375 (2023-01-27)Activity charts:
2. What you’re already doing well ✅
- Tactical alertness – In your recent win as Black against Renza Jainudeen you found 11…Nf3+!!, a nice forcing shot that shattered White’s king cover.
- Fighting spirit – Even in worse positions you keep looking for tricks (e.g. promoting b-pawns in several losses). That never-give-up attitude is excellent.
- Opening curiosity – You experiment with gambits such as the Englund. Exploring unusual lines can sharpen tactical vision.
3. Biggest improvement areas 🔍
- King safety / early castling
• Five of your last six losses feature your king stuck in the center or walking to f7/f5 squares.
• Rule of thumb: castle by move 10 unless you have a concrete reason not to.
- Respect the opening principles
• Multiple queen sorties (e.g. 8.Qb5? in your win, and 7.Qa4+ in a loss) cost time and invite counterplay.
• For the next 30 games, set yourself a challenge: “No queen moves before move 10 unless it captures something.” - Pawn structure awareness
• Pushing the g-pawn early (g4 / g3 / h4) left dark-square holes that opponents exploited with …Bh6 and …Qg5 ideas.
• Before advancing a flank pawn, ask: “Does this weaken squares my opponent can occupy?” - Time management
• Two wins and one loss ended on the clock. Try the “40-30-20” rule: spend ≈40 % of your time on the first 15 moves, 30 % on the next 15, leaving 20 % for the endgame.
4. Action plan for the next month 📅
- Opening core: Play 10 games with 1.e4 as White and 10 games with the French or Scandinavian as Black. Stick to classical setups to build pattern recognition.
- Post-game routine: After every session, annotate one critical moment. Identify whether it was a missed fork, an overlooked zwischenzug Zwischenzug, or a positional misjudgment.
- Tactics diet: 15 minutes daily on puzzles rated 300-500 points above your current rating. Aim for 20 correct in a row before increasing difficulty.
- Endgame basics: Spend one week each on (a) king-and-pawn vs king, (b) opposition, (c) basic rook endgames. These positions decide many low-time games.
5. Illustrative example from your own game
From your loss in the French (moves 10-15):
10.Ne5? Qe7 11.f4 f6! 12.f5? fxe5 13.dxe5 ...
Instead of 10.Ne5, castling short followed by Nbd2-f1-g3 would have kept the center solid and prepared for a safer pawn break.