Dinesh Rajan M FM

Quick summary

Nice set of bullet results — you’re producing strong attacking wins and converting tactical chances quickly. Your biggest leak right now is tactical oversight in the early–middlegame when the position becomes sharp (example: allowing a queen trade that unleashed a knight fork). With a few focused practice habits you’ll turn more of those close games into consistent wins.

What you did well

• Active piece play and coordination in winning games — you create threats and follow up (example: a successful kingside mating attack finishing with Qxh7# against patzer_princess).
• Good use of simplifying tactics when ahead — you trade into favorable end positions quickly in several wins (rooks and queens traded to convert material advantage).
• Strong opening choices in some lines — your results show particular comfort and a high win rate with the French Defense: Exchange Variation and the Benoni Defense: Benoni Gambit Accepted. Keep those as go-to options in bullet.

Recurring mistakes and patterns to fix

• Missing short tactical refutations after a queen trade. In the loss to Terry Luo the opponent exchanged on d2 and then scored with a knight jumping to d3 — check for forks/skewers before accepting exchanges.
• Occasional loose piece moments in the early middlegame — double-check where opponent’s knights and bishops can jump after a capture or queen move.
• Time management in bullet: sometimes you spend several moves thinking in positions that don’t require deep calculation. In bullet it’s often better to simplify or play practical moves that keep the clock ticking.

Concrete short-term plan (what to practice this week)

• Tactics drill: 10–15 minutes daily of focused puzzles that target forks, discovered attacks and knight jumps. Prioritize motifs that win material immediately (forks and discovered checks).
• Pre-move discipline: don’t pre-move when a capture opens tactical shots. If you must pre-move, restrict it to safe recaptures where no counter-tactic is possible.
• Opening simplification for bullet: when the position is unclear, steer into lines you know lead to simple, stable plans (use your French Exchange and Benoni Gambit Accepted more often; avoid the riskier Poisoned Pawn London lines until you have more practice).
• One-minute review after each loss: write one line (1–2 sentences) of what you missed and why — this will significantly reduce repeated mistakes.

Concrete medium-term plan (2–6 weeks)

• Study 50 tactical patterns focused on knight forks and queen checks. Do them until your recognition becomes instant under time pressure.
• Play training sessions where you purposely steer into positions from your best openings (French Defense and Benoni Defense: Benoni Gambit Accepted) to build fast automatic moves.
• Endgame basics: 10–15 simple rook and queen endgame positions — learn one safe conversion method so you can trade into winning endings quickly in bullet.

Bullet-specific tips you can apply immediately

• If you are ahead material or positionally, simplify quickly — trades reduce the chance of a tactical blow and save time on the clock.
• When an opponent offers a queen exchange, pause and check for immediate tactical replies from them (knight/double-attack squares, back-rank issues) before accepting.
• Use pre-moves only when you’re sure there is no tactical reply — safe recaptures or forced checks are fine; complex captures are not.
• Keep moves that maintain threats — even a small in-between move that preserves a tactic is often stronger than “obvious” developing moves in bullet.

Two quick examples to review (use these to train pattern recognition)

Load these short sequences into your study mode and step through them at 2x speed. Look for the tactical trigger before each capture.

• Loss example (focus on the Nd3 fork after Qxd2):
• Win example (kingside finish with mating net):

Quick drills (15–30 minutes total)

• 10 minutes: 1-minute puzzle rush focusing on forks and discovered checks.
• 10 minutes: 5 rapid training games (1+0 or 2+1) using only one opening you want to master — play the main idea, not novelty hunting.
• 10 minutes: Review one loss — write one sentence about the tactical motif you missed and one sentence what you will check next time.

If you want, next steps I can help with

• Make a short 10–15 move opening cheat-sheet for your go-to lines (I can draft it from your best openings).
• Create a 2-week daily tactical plan tailored to the motifs you’re missing (forks, discovered attacks, knight jumps).
• Analyze a full game with move-by-move commentary — pick one win and one loss and I’ll annotate the turning points.