Hi Arturs!
Congratulations on another productive streak on the board. Your recent run of 5/6 in blitz (≈3 min) shows that you are in excellent tactical shape and that your “double-fianchetto / Reti-English” arsenal is giving most opponents serious practical problems.
What you are doing particularly well
- Opening versatility with 1.Nf3. In the span of six games you reached King’s Indian Attack structures, pure English positions and even a Dutch-type set-up against …f5. Opponents struggle to guess which middle-game plan you will choose.
- Dynamic piece play. Your wins against Lennis Martinez Ramirez and Sergey And. Korshunov feature timely pawn breaks (e4, b4, c6) and razor-sharp king hunts. The engines agree you were ahead on the clock and the board by move 25 in both games.
- Killer instinct when ahead. Once a passed pawn appears (24.d6!! vs Lennis93; 39.b6! vs Chessmatenokk17) you transition smoothly into “force-promotion mode” and rarely let the advantage slip.
- Peak form. You are currently playing near your season high of 2960 (2024-10-22).
Three improvement priorities
- Time-management in drawn or lost endings.
Your last loss vs Paddy2609 and the Chess960 time-forfeit both share a pattern: you reach a defensive endgame, hesitate, and flag. Even a simple increment would have saved both games, but in pure 3-minute you must either:- Trust your technique sooner (liquidate to a holdable rook ending), or
- Recognise “dead-lost” earlier and switch to fast premove defence to keep practical chances.
- Critical moment calculation.
In the Queen’s Indian loss to xueshanbaolong you avoided 24…Bxd5 (equal) and allowed the b-pawn avalanche. Spend 30-60 sec at big branching points—even in blitz. A short “scan” checklist helps:- Material balance?
- King safety?
- Passed pawns / pawn breaks?
- Stopping pawn races on the flank.
Your two recent defeats versus minority pawn pushes (a- & b-pawns) indicate a recurring theme: under-estimating outside passed pawns once queens are off. Work through five classic examples (e.g. Botvinnik–Capablanca, Hübner–Portisch) and play them against the engine; focus on blockade squares and creating counterplay in the centre.
Action plan for the next 2 weeks
| Day | Task | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Mon / Thu | Endgame rook-pawn drills (Lichess Trainer or homemade) | 20 min |
| Tue / Fri | Analyse 3 critical moments from your own games without engine, then verify | 25 min |
| Weekend | Play one 15 + 10 rapid game focusing on clock balance | 45 min |
Annotated snapshot: last win, move 21–32
(White = you, Black = Lennis93) – conversion technique after pawn sacrifice.
Key points:- 25.a4! freezes the queenside knight and prepares Rg1-g4.
- 29.Rg1!! shows great coordination; the g-file was the correct entry lane.
- Despite only 60 s left you kept the initiative and induced time-pressure mistakes.
Keep sharpening the tactics, but give yourself those extra 2-3 critical seconds when the position demands it. A small adjustment in clock discipline should push you well beyond the 2900 blitz barrier.
Good luck and enjoy the grind!