Gonded

Hi Gonded!

Great job keeping a positive attitude and playing lots of games. The more you play — and review — the quicker you improve. Here’s a quick overview of where you shine and where you can grow.

Your current profile at a glance

• Favourite openings: 1 b3 (Nimzowitsch-Larsen) as White, and the Modern / Owen’s ideas …g6 …b6 as Black.
• Playing window: see your own activity peaks in
  .
• Best rapid mark so far: 933 (2024-01-28). Let’s aim to push that above 850 next!

What you’re already doing well

1. Consistent openings. Sticking to a small repertoire lets you recognise familiar patterns quicker.
2. Piece activity. Your bishops often land on long diagonals early, putting pressure on f- and c-files.
3. Killer instinct. When you sense the opponent is in trouble you usually keep attacking: e.g. your win vs askar33355566 ended after 24.Rxb8⁺ when every one of your pieces took part.

Biggest improvement opportunities

1. Early queen adventures cost tempi. In your recent Caro-Kann loss the queen hopped Qf3–f4–b3–b7–a5 while most pieces stayed home.
   
   
   ➜ Try to delay the queen until your minor pieces are out and the king is safe.
2. Castle sooner when the centre opens. Several Black losses arose before you reached safety. A rule of thumb: after you move a flank pawn (…g6/…b6) castle within the next 3–4 moves.
3. Tactics, tactics, tactics. Most games at our level are decided by a single overlooked fork, pin or mate threat. • Work through 15–20 puzzles daily, focusing on basic two-move wins. • Specifically drill knight forks and back-rank mates – two motifs that appeared in your losses. • When it’s your move, force yourself to ask “what checks, captures or threats exist?” – a classic blunder-check.
4. End-game confidence. In the win against oktaymeyve you converted a pawn race nicely, but in the loss to krish732856 an extra pawn became a passed e-pawn for your opponent. ➜ Learn the basic winning technique for king + pawn vs king, and rook end-game “Lucena” & “Philidor” positions.

Action plan for the next two weeks

• Play 10 rapid games (15 + 10) and analyse immediately — first on your own, then with the computer to spot missed tactics.
• Solve 150 tactics puzzles (10 per day). Tag every mistake as “fork”, “pin”, “back-rank” etc. Patterns stick when you name them.
• Watch one short video or read one article on the idea of tempo and why wasting moves with the queen hurts.
• Add one classical, centre-first opening as White (e.g. the Italian with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4) so you also practice open-game development.

Keep tracking progress

Check your streaks and win rates with

Good luck, have fun, and remember: every master was once a beginner. See you at the board!