Coach Chesswick
What you’re doing well in blitz
Your blitz games show good energy and willingness to seek active, tactical possession. You often challenge the opponent’s setup with concrete plans and you don’t shy away from tactical lines when they arise. When you gain initiative, you keep pressure on the board and look for forcing moves that push the opponent to respond under time pressure.
- Active piece coordination in sharp positions, which creates practical chances even in complex middlegames.
- Willingness to simplify when appropriate, which can lead to cleaner endings in blitz.
- Adaptability to different pawn structures, which helps you handle a variety of openings.
Key areas to improve
- Time management under pressure: allocate a clear, fast decision process for the first critical moves and avoid spending too long on non-critical questions in the early stages.
- Decision quality in complex middlegames: when the position is unclear, favor solid, forcing plans over risky, flashy tactics that can backfire if the opponent has resources.
- Endgame technique: work on common blitz endgames (rook endings, king and pawn endings) so you can convert small advantages more reliably and reduce last-move blunders.
- Opening consistency: choose 2–3 openings you know well and build a simple, repeatable plan for each, so you can reach the middlegame with a clear idea of the pawn structure and typical piece activity.
- Post-game analysis routine: after each blitz session, write 1–2 takeaways per game (one good idea and one improvement) to accelerate learning from mistakes.
Actionable training plan
- Opening focus: pick two openings you want to specialize in for blitz (for example, French Defense (Winawer/A variants) and a flexible defense like the Modern or King’s Indian setups). Create a one-page outline for each that includes typical plans, key pawn structures, and 2–3 forcing variations to memorize.
- Tactics and pattern practice: solve 20–30 short tactical puzzles daily that emphasize forks, pins, overloads, and deflection—patterns you often encounter in blitz.
- Endgame practice: study rook endings and king-and-pawn endings with a few standard tests each week; aim to convert even small edge advantages.
- Post-game reviews: after every blitz session, note one strong move you played and one mistake, plus the moment you felt the position slipped from your control.
- Time management drills: in practice sessions, use a fixed time budget for the first 15 moves (e.g., 4–6 minutes), then decide if you want to proceed with deeper calculation or pivot to a solid plan.
Weekly practice plan
- 3 days per week: focused opening work and 20–30 minutes of timed puzzles.
- 2 days per week: 15–20 blitz games with a consistent time control; stop and review every 5 games.
- 1 day per week: endgame session with practical rook endings and pawn endgames, plus a lighter game to implement the lessons learned.
Next steps
To keep your progress trackable, maintain a short practice log and revisit it every two weeks. If you’d like, you can view a quick profile summary here: milan%20franic.