Jose Fabian Benito

Quick overview

Nice run in recent blitz — you’re converting advantages, pressing in messy middlegames, and your rating trend shows a strong upward trajectory (big gains over 3–6 months). Your strength-adjusted win rate (~59%) confirms you’re outperforming most opponents in similar pools.

• Momentum: steady rating growth (3‑month & 6‑month slopes are very healthy).
• Style: tactical, aggressive, likes active piece play and open files.
• Areas to shore up: time management in no‑increment blitz, and a couple of recurring opening lines that produce tricky positions.

What you’re doing well

From the sample wins and your opening statistics:

• Conversion — you find concrete winning continuations (multiple wins show Q+R tactics and pawn breakthroughs).
• Active pieces — you keep rooks and bishops on useful lines (good use of rooks on open files and queen activity).
• Opening preparation — very strong results with sharp systems (Najdorf Opocensky, Scandinavian, Blackburne Shilling Gambit success rates are excellent).
• Resilience — you recover well from small setbacks and keep creating complications that yield practical chances (good for blitz).

Recurring problems to fix

Target these common patterns to lift your blitz performance further:

• Time trouble on no‑increment games — a few wins were by opponent timeout, but getting into severe time trouble increases risk of blunders. Practice pacing and quick decision templates.
• Endgame technique under the clock — some winning positions required careful conversion and you had to spend time calculating; polish simple rook/queen endgames and basic pawn endgames.
• Certain opening lines underperform — your London Poisoned Pawn line has a lower win rate; review typical pitfalls and key defensive ideas there.
• Tactical oversights in messy positions — you create complications (good) but occasionally miss the best defensive intermezzo; add targeted tactical drills for derived motifs (deflection, decoy, rook tactics).

Concrete, weekly training plan (for blitz)

Minimal time but high impact. Repeat weekly:

• Daily 15–25 mins tactics: focus on 3–5 motif categories per day (forks, pins, deflection, back‑rank). Use short timed sets to simulate blitz decision speed.
• Three 30‑45 min sessions per week: 3|0 or 5|0 rapid practice focusing on pacing — force yourself to make a move within 10–15s when position is “simple.”
• One review session (20–30 mins): annotate 3 recent wins + 3 losses. Ask: was there a simpler plan? Where did clock decisions cost you the most?
• Opening refresh (2× 20 mins/week): drill lines where your win rate is weakest — e.g., the London Poisoned Pawn and Ruy Lopez variations. Learn 2 key plans and one tactical trap to avoid.
• Endgame mini‑block (2× 15 mins/week): rook vs rook + pawns, king and pawn endings, and basic queen vs rook/rook vs pawn conversions under time pressure.

Practical in‑game guidelines

Short, actionable rules to apply during blitz:

• First 10 moves: follow a known plan. If you’re out of book, play simple developing moves and avoid early queen sorties unless you see a clear target.
• When ahead in material: exchange down to a technically won ending if the opponent is fast on the clock — simplification is your friend.
• When behind or equal: create practical threats (pins, forks, attacks on the king). Your opponents often collapse under counterpressure.
• If you have no increment, set a mental checkpoint each 10 moves: aim to have ≥30s left at move 20 in a 3‑minute game. If you fall behind, switch to “practical move” mode — safe, forcing, low‑calculation moves.

Example: one recent win — study points

Key ideas from the French/Rubinstein win: active queen + rook play, using passed pawn, and exploiting a back rank / king exposure sequence.

• Opening note: you steered into a Rubinstein/French middlegame where piece activity mattered more than pawn structure — capitalized with centralizing knight and queenside rook lift.
• Tactical motif: exchanged into a position where a passed pawn (d‑pawn) and active queen created decisive threats — you converted cleanly.
• Practical conversion: instead of looking for a miracle tactic, you improved a passed pawn and used checks to force the opponent’s king into a mating net/rape of material.

Replay the game below and look for the moments where you traded to reduce the opponent’s counterplay and when you chose the straightforward winning plan over a risky tactic.

Opponent: IMPERAGE — review where they allowed the passed pawn and how you forced simplifying trades.

Where to focus next (30/60/90 days)

• 30 days — reduce time trouble: timed blitz sets with forced fast decisions; tactics every day.
• 60 days — clean up 2 openings (pick one you play as White and one as Black). Build 10 typical plans and 3 trap lines for each.
• 90 days — endgame consistency and tournament simulation: train 10 key endgame positions and play several 5‑round rapid events to test conversion under slightly longer time control.

One last tip

Keep the momentum but be deliberate: your pattern recognition and tactical sharpness are big advantages in blitz — channel them with better clock discipline and a small, structured opening repertoire. That combination will turn many close wins into more consistent rating gains.

• Weak spot to watch: London System Poisoned Pawn — study typical defensive motifs there.
• Continue what works: keep the aggressive, active approach in sharp lines (you win by creating problems opponents can’t solve quickly).