Pavel Kiselev FM

Hi Pavel, here is your personalised training report

Your general trend

Blitz peak: 2409 (2023-12-19)  •  Rapid peak: 2254 (2021-11-09)

Quick summary

• Opening repertoire: As White you favour 1.d4 systems (QGD with Bf4, Slav Exchange) and occasional 1.Nf3 → King’s Indian Attack. As Black you rely on the Petroff (C42) and modern set-ups against 1.d4 (Grünfeld / Benoni / KID).
• Typical strengths: rapid piece activity, willingness to calculate concrete tactics (e.g. the …Bxh3 sacrifice in your latest Petroff win), and good conversion technique in simplified endgames when ahead.
• Main leaks: king safety in dynamic defences (Alekhine, Benoni, KID); over-optimistic pawn thrusts that leave holes; and recurring time-pressure (two of the five recent losses were caused or amplified by clock trouble).

Detailed feedback

1. Opening phase

Petroff success – You already know the typical …Qh5–…Bxh3 idea after h3/Nc3. Keep it, but add the quieter 6…Bd6/6…Be7 lines to avoid becoming too predictable.

Against 1.d4 – Your mixed choice (Benoni, Grünfeld, KID) suggests you like dynamic play, yet many of your defeats arise here. Consider building one solid alternative (e.g. the Queen’s Gambit Declined) so you can vary between “stable” and “sharp” moods.

Alekhine Defence disaster – In the 60-second loss you allowed the well-known 14.Ng5/15.Nh7 motif. Memorise the antidote: after 12…Nc6, prefer 12…f5 or 12…Qe8 to keep h7 protected.

2. Middlegame decisions

• When you have the initiative you calculate well, but when defending you often react one move late. Add a “last-move safety check” to your routine: ask “what changed?” before pressing the clock.
• The pawn storm …g5/…h5 in several KID/Benoni games left dark-squared weaknesses. Try playing practice games where you ban yourself from pushing flank pawns before move 15 unless it gains material. This will develop patience.

3. Endgame & conversion

Your rook endings are generally sound, but you lost one totally drawn R + P vs R + P by running out of time. The position was technically equal; the only enemy was the clock. Drill a few 5-minute “rook-and-pawn only” sparring games to automate technique and save time later.

4. Clock management

Blitz is unforgiving. Aim to keep at least 40 % of your initial time by move 20. Concrete tip: if the opponent is thinking, physically move your eyes away from the board and do a quick scan of your half for loose pieces/weak back rank – productive thinking that doesn’t burn clock later.

Action plan for the next 2 weeks

1. Study 3 annotated Petroff wins by strong GMs focusing on quiet positional lines.
2. Solve 20 defensive puzzles (rating 2400–2600) filtering for “king attack vs you”.
3. Play 10 rapid games (15 + 10) switching to the classical QGD as Black – annotate them to identify strategic misunderstandings.
4. Every session finish with a 5-minute rook-and-pawn endgame drill vs engine on depth-limited mode.

Motivational snapshot

Your last five decisive games were +3 =0 -2. Clean up the defensive errors and that turns into +5! Small tweaks – big rating gains.

Keep me posted

When you feel the new openings or time routine settle in, send me 3 fresh games and we’ll refine the plan. Good luck, Pavel!