David R Norwood GM

Quick review for David R Norwood

Nice session — you won several sharp games by creating passed pawns, using knight outposts and forcing tactical targets on the enemy king. You also lost a couple of games on time, so the biggest practical gap right now is time management in 1‑minute games. Below are focused, actionable points to keep the wins coming and stop the clock losses.

What you're doing well

• Clean tactics under pressure — you convert combinations (knight forks, queen infiltration, decisive checks) reliably in winning games.
• Passed pawn awareness — in the promotion win you advanced and converted a passed pawn into a new queen efficiently.
• Active piece play — you consistently improve piece activity (Ng5, Ne4 style jumps and rook to the file) rather than passivity.
• Simplification when ahead — you often trade into an endgame or simplify to a winning material advantage instead of overcomplicating.
• Opening consistency — you keep returning to the same g3/king‑fianchetto setups, which gives you practical familiarity in blitz/bullet situations.

Main areas to improve (high impact)

• Time management — several losses ended on the clock rather than by being outplayed. In 60s games you must make fast, practical decisions. Use these micro‑rules: spend extra time only on critical tactical decisions; otherwise play the developing/forcing move.
• Premoves and pre‑decision discipline — in completely forced sequences use safe premoves, but avoid automatic premoves when the position could change (opponent checks, captures).
• Opening speed and low‑theory lines — your KIA/g3 approach is good, but tighten move orders so you reach middlegame plans quickly (memorise 6–8 move plans, not long theory lines). That saves clock and avoids surprise deviations.
• Endgame technique under time pressure — you convert passed pawns well when you have time. Practice the common 1‑piece vs pawn and rook+pawn endgames to convert even when the clock is low.
• Avoid unnecessary pawn moves when ahead in material — some pawn pushes cost time and give counterplay; prefer activating pieces and restricting the opponent instead.

Concrete drills & study plan (next 2 weeks)

• Daily: 10–15 minutes of fast tactics (1 minute per puzzle). Focus on forks, discovered attacks and knight jumps — your strengths — but drill pattern recognition so you take less time in games.
• 3× per week: 20 minute bullet session with explicit clock rules — no more than 3 seconds per move on average. Practice playing the same opening until you can reach your middlegame plan in 8 moves without thinking.
• Endgame sprint: 2× per week, 10 minutes practicing queen/pawn vs king and rook endgames (promotions and checks). Learn the shortest converting technique for your typical positions.
• Premove policy: practice using premoves only in completely forced recaptures or when you are materially winning and no tactics can reverse it. Make a checklist: is the king safe? any captures available? any checks? If yes, don't premove.
• One‑minute tactics challenge before every session — do 5 puzzles as a warmup to get the clock reflexes going.

Practical in‑game tips (apply immediately)

• When ahead in material: simplify (trade queens/major pieces) and switch to sensible, low‑risk moves to avoid giving the opponent checks that cost time.
• When behind or equal: create complications only if you have time — otherwise play solid developing moves and avoid drastic pawn storms if they cost too much on the clock.
• Use familiar motifs: your Ng5 → Nf7 jumps and Qf7 targets worked — keep them in your mental toolkit so you can play them quickly from memory.
• If your opponent sacrifices: pause 1 full second extra to verify there isn’t a refutation — a quick extra second is cheaper than blundering the game or losing on time after scrambling.
• Endgame flagging: if low on time but position is safe, trade into a winning but simpler endgame you can flag with — rook+passed pawn beats lone king in blitz if you manage premoves well.

One example to review

Study this recent win to see how you combined piece activity, passed pawns and tactical hits to finish the game:

Open this game in your review session and mark the moments where you spent more than 6 seconds — those are the decision points to shortcut by pattern learning.

Short checklist before your next session

• Warm up 5 tactics.
• Decide premove policy (on/off) before playing.
• Pick one opening line and drill it until you can reach move 8 without thinking.
• If you get flagged often, switch to one slower control (e.g., 3+0) for a few sessions to fix habits, then return to 1‑minute.
• Record one lost-on-time game and note how many moves you spent >6 seconds on — that's your trainable noise.

Closing / next steps

You're tactically sharp and convert advantages — which is half the battle in bullet. Focus the next two weeks on clock discipline, fast opening plans, and short endgame conversion drills. If you'd like, I can build a 2‑week drill schedule tailored to your opening repertoire and the exact time sinks in your recent games.

If you want me to annotate a specific game move‑by‑move, tell me which one (for example: Bu11et_Pr00f or arnau_sanchez) and I’ll produce a concise annotated replay you can study on your phone.