Dimitri Bogdanov

Quick summary for Dimitri Bogdanov

Good job — your recent bullet shows strong tactical instincts and a willingness to keep the initiative. You win many scrappy, dynamic games but also lose several on the clock. Below are clear, actionable adjustments to turn that activity into more consistent wins.

What you're doing well

• Active piece play and initiative — you constantly bring knights and queens into the attack, creating concrete threats.
• Tactical awareness — you spot forks, captures and forcing continuations quickly, which leads to many decisive positions.
• Strong opening choices in your repertoire — your WinRates in Sicilian Closed and Modern-type systems show these lines fit your style.
• Practical conversion — you pressure opponents into time trouble and often convert on practical chances.

Main areas to improve (fast impact)

• Time management: too many games end by flag. When you have an edge, switch to simple plans or trades instead of hunting tiny improvements that cost clock.
• Queue a 3-move decision rule under 10s: check for checks, captures, threats — then play the simplest safe move.
• King safety before going all-in: add one prophylactic move (air / rook lift / simple block) before committing the whole army.
• Pre-move hygiene: only pre-move safe recaptures/forced captures; avoid speculative queen pre-moves.

Concrete drills (10–20 minutes each)

• Clock-focus games: 20 games at 1|1 or 2|1 aiming to finish with 5+ seconds. Rule: if ahead by material, exchange into a won endgame.
• Tactics sprint: 12 quick puzzles (2–3 minutes total) to sharpen pattern recognition — forks, pins, back-rank mates.
• Safe pre-move practice: 30 games where you allow only one kind of pre-move (recapture) — builds discipline.
• Endgame simplification drill: practice converting +1 with under 20s on the clock (play simple king/rook vs rook positions in training).

How to review the win & loss (short checklist)

• Win: find the moment you could have simplified to avoid tense clock races. Mark that move and the simpler winning plan.
• Loss: find the time-drop moments. Was it indecision or deep calculation? Replace the habit with a quick rule (e.g., "trade when ahead, retreat when unsure").
• Tag two moves per game where you hesitated — practice similar motifs in tactics drills for faster recognition.

Replay this key attacking sequence

Study this attack slowly and ask: where could I have simplified? Where did I gain an advantage because of initiative? Replay the moves and test the ideas at slow pace.

Opponent references: neriojr (win) and saimrtn (loss sample).

Opening tweaks

• Keep playing lines that work — Sicilian Closed and Modern — they suit your tactical style.
• Patch Scandinavian and similar lines where your WinRate is ~48%: memorize one simple early plan and one safe response to sidestep early theory fights and save time.
• If playing Chess960 often, practice king-safety patterns: a single "safety" tempo after move 5 saves time later.

Reference: Scandinavian Defense.

Mid-game checklist to internalize

• Clock < 20s? Reduce candidates to 2, pick simpler one.
• Material + initiative? Trade down and convert rather than hunting extra gains.
• Pre-move only when safe (piece will be recaptured or forced).
• Opponent low on time and position unclear? Keep the position practical — force trades or checks that cost them time.

Next step

This week: (1) Play 30 1|1 games with the "simplify when ahead" rule. (2) Do four 10-minute tactic sprints. If you like, I’ll generate a 7-day micro-plan and annotate 3 precise moments from your recent games.