Dusan Jovanovic IM

Hi Dusan!

Below is a personalised review of your recent games and a practical action-plan for rapid improvement.

Snapshot of your performance

• Peak Blitz rating: 2693 (2023-06-28)
• Peak Rapid rating: 2582 (2021-02-26)
• Hourly win-rate pattern:
• Win-rate by day of the week:

Your current strengths

1. Hot starts in the opening. You usually develop quickly and fight for the centre—excellent habits that give you playable positions against stronger opponents.
2. Willingness to attack. Many of your wins feature pawn storms (…g5/…h5 or g4/h4 with White) that create practical chances, e.g. the decisive attack in your latest win:

3. Fighting spirit. Even when under pressure you keep looking for counter-play instead of drifting passively.

Recurring problems to address

1. King safety after premature pawn pushes.
   Games vs Gorbaev and Ucitelot show that advancing the g- and h-pawns too early can leave dark squares and your king exposed. Ask yourself before pushing: “Can my king still hide if the attack fails?” A brief illustration from the loss to Ucitelot:

Black’s kingside is wide open, yet your own king on f3 never finds shelter.

2. Time-management. In several blitz games you entered critical positions with <10 seconds and flagged from completely drawable (even winning) positions. Adopt a simple rule: reach move 20 with ≥50 % of your initial time.
3. Converting advantages. In the English Opening loss you were a pawn up but lost the thread in a favourable rook endgame. Work on basic rook & pawn technique and practise the “two-result mindset”: once better, remove counter-play first.

Opening focus for the next month

• With White: Your mix of 1.e4, London and English is fine, but narrow it to two main systems so preparation goes deeper. Consider the London-English hybrid: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 followed by c4 when convenient.
• With Black: Against 1.e4 you successfully reach ECO B33 type positions. Study the model game Carlsen–Caruana, 2019 (Pelikan/Sveshnikov) to copy the typical plans.
  Against 1.d4 your Chigorin setup (…Nc6 & …dxc4 ideas) gives dynamic play—keep it but learn the critical line 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 dxc4.

Middlegame themes to drill

• King-side pawn storms: study when h–pawn pushes are sound versus reckless.
• Exchange sacrifices on f3/f6—very thematic in your favourite setups.
• Prophylaxis (prophylaxis): every move ask, “What is my opponent’s idea?” before moving.

Endgame essentials

Spend one week each on:

1. King + pawn vs king (opposition, outside passer).
2. Rook endings: Lucena and Philidor, then the “side-check” technique.
3. Minor-piece endings: knight vs bishop with pawns on both wings.

Concrete training plan (4-week block)

• Daily: 20 tactical puzzles untimed → write down all candidate moves before revealing the answer.
• 3× per week: play one 15 + 10 rapid game and annotate it, focusing on critical decisions, not move-by-move commentary.
• Weekly: pick one master game in your opening and replay it twice—first quickly for ideas, second time guessing moves.
• End of each week: play four rook-and-pawn endgame positions vs engine set to 2000 Elo.

Mindset tip

Before each move run a 30-second blunder check: 1) What changed in the position? 2) Are my king, queen or back-rank vulnerable? 3) Does an in-between move (zwischenzug) exist for my opponent?

Final thoughts

Your tactical eye and fighting attitude are already at master level; polishing king safety and time-usage will convert more of your good positions into points. Stay disciplined with the plan above for one month, then we’ll raise the bar again. Enjoy the journey!