Coach Chesswick
Hi Christopher!
Your recent games show an energetic, tactical style that scores quick wins but can occasionally back-fire. Below is a quick performance snapshot followed by personalised recommendations.
Quick Snapshot
- Peak blitz rating: 2740 (2019-12-26)
- Activity trends:
- Typical openings:
- With White – 1.d4 systems: Queen’s Gambit Accepted & Pseudo-Catalan
- With Black – Sicilian (Alapin / Grand Prix), Scandinavian, Benoni structures
What you’re already doing well
- Dynamic piece play. Your wins against tse122 and Norman Weinstein show confident pawn breaks (…c5, d5-d4) and knight hops that seize the initiative.
- Killer instinct. When you smell tactical chances you convert quickly – see the mating finish 32.Qxf8# in the Grand Prix Attack.
- Endgame alertness. In the win versus arnacman you calmly nursed an exchange up despite mutual time pressure and converted by flagging.
Key growth areas
- Early queen adventures as Black.
Loss vs puma64 (D02) featured 8…Be6?! 9.e4 Qd7 10.exd5 Bxd5 – the queen shuffled four times by move 14 and you fell a tempo behind. Aim for one purposeful queen move in the opening; develop minor pieces first. - King safety in sharp French structures.
Against PlaybirdOmen you played the Tarrasch French but left the kingside undeveloped. After 17…Bxb4 your king was still on e8 and you flagged inside a cramped position. Consider simpler plans: 12…a6 is fine, but follow with …Bd7 & …Rc8 before grabbing pawns. - Tactical blunders from over-extension.
The Alekhine loss to iskage turned on 29…Nh3+! when your kingside pawns were fixed on dark squares. Before advancing h-pawns, do a “check-captures-threats” scan each move. - Clock management.
Three of the last five losses were on time. Add a quick increment-safe checkpoint: if you drop below 1:00, immediately simplify or liquidate into an easy ending.
Recommended training plan
- 30-minute weekly opening tune-up. Pick one Black defence vs 1.d4 (recommend the QGA you already know) and learn two solid sidelines to avoid early queen drift.
- Tactics, tactics, tactics. 15-20 puzzles/day focusing on “interference” and “deflection” motifs – the exact patterns that hurt you in the Alekhine game.
- Practical endgames. Drill R+N vs R scenarios; the loss vs rightperson collapsed after inaccurately defending a rook ending.
- Moderate your push strategy. Try one training session per week where you consciously do not launch h-/g-pawn storms before move 15 unless you are castled opposite-sides. This builds positional patience.
Next steps before our session
- Annotate your loss to Iskage and mark three moments where another move maintained equality.
- Play two 15|10 games without premoves; focus on staying above 60 seconds the whole time.
- Bring any questions about the Queen’s Gambit Accepted pawn structures – we’ll deep-dive them together.
Keep the creative spark – just add a layer of safety checks and you’ll break 2500 soon!