Raul Adrian Habiaga NM

Executive summary

You’ve shown resilience and sustained progress over a broad period, with strong results in several openings and a notable overall win/loss record. In the last stretch, your rating trend has been mixed: a short-term dip, but a longer-term upward trajectory. Your openings data highlights clear strengths in certain Sicilian lines, while Chess960 shows you’re adapting to more chaotic, unstandardized positions. The plan below focuses on capitalizing on your strengths, tightening decision making in complex middlegames, and building consistent endgame technique.

Recent results snapshot

• Recent win: you won a daily game in a long, dynamic sequence. This suggests you can navigate complex positions and maintain pressure when you have initiative.
• Recent loss: another daily game ended in defeat after a protracted sequence in a Chess960-setting. This is a good opportunity to study how to stabilize imbalanced positions and improve path to equality when your plan is not clear from move one.
• Recent draw: a solid result in a Chess960 game, indicating you can hold drawish chances when the position tightens.

Opening performance insights

• Your strongest opening results come from the Sicilian Defense: Closed (high win rate with many games). This suggests you’re comfortable with sharp, double-edged play and active piece activity in those structures.
• Sicilian Defense (other lines) and Barnes Defense also show solid performance, indicating solid understanding of typical middlegame plans in these families.
• Higher success in some less common or unknown lines (Unknown category shows a very high win rate in a small sample). Treat this as a sign to diversify thoughtfully, but avoid over-relying on a few unusual lines without solid, repeatable understanding.
• In Chess960, practice and preparation in unstandardized positions will help your conversion from middlegame advantages to clear plans, since standard opening theory is less applicable there.

Strength adjusted win rate interpretation

Your strength-adjusted win rate is around 0.498, which is near parity. This means you’re often trading chances with opponents of similar strength. Focus areas are navigation of complex middlegames, converting small advantages, and closing out positions more cleanly to push that rate over 0.50 consistently.

Rating trends and what they mean

• 1 month rating change: -21 points. Short-term decline, possibly from recent tough opponents or a rough patch in sharper lines.
• 3 month rating change: -1 point. Largely flat in the mid-term, suggesting you’re treading water rather than falling apart.
• 6 month rating change: +61 points and slope about 72.6. Indicates a solid uptrend over a medium horizon – you’re trending upward over the half-year window.
• 12 month trend slope: about 19.8. Positive over the long run, though the rate of gain is smaller than the 6-month window, which is common as you level off after a strong run.

Takeaway: the short term has been bumpy, but your medium-to-long-term trajectory is positive. The focus should be sustaining gains while reducing the risk of new dips in the near term.

Strengths to build on

• Sharp, tactical awareness in Sicilian structures. Great initiative and pressure when you get the initiative.
• Ability to navigate and win challenging middlegames in dynamic openings.
• Progress appears steady over 6–12 months, indicating good learning momentum and adaptation to competitive play.

Key areas to improve

• Endgame technique and conversion: work on turning small advantages into wins, especially from middlegame transitions common in your openings.
• Chess960 adaptability: increase practice in non-standard starts to improve planning after the initial chaos; focus on quick development, king safety, and creating practical plans from unordered positions.
• Time management in longer games: consider setting formal move-by-move time budgets in practice to avoid time pressure, which can magnify small mistakes late in the game.
• Pattern recognition in common endgames: reinforce typical rook endgames and minor-piece endings that show up after trades in your main openings.

Practice plan for the next 4–6 weeks

• Opening focus (2–3 sessions per week): solidify your top Sicilian lines (Closed and other main branches) and review 1–2 Queen's Gambit Declined variants you encounter. Add a small set of Chess960 practice positions to build adaptability.
• Endgame clinic (2 sessions per week, 20–30 minutes): rook endings, minor piece endings, and basic fortress ideas. Use practical positions from your recent games to guide study.
• Tactical sharpening (daily 15–20 minutes): quick-fire tactics to improve calculation depth and pattern recognition under time pressure.
• Game analysis (weekly): review 3 recent games with a coach or engine at a low setting to identify recurring mistakes, focusing on decision points in the middlegame and the transition to endgames.
• Time management drill (weekly): play 15+0 or longer games with a personal time budget (e.g., 60 moves in 90 minutes, then 30 minutes left) to practice pacing and avoid late-game blunders.

Practical tips for quick wins

• When your position is developing quickly in the middle game, look for forcing moves and immediate threats before expanding your plan. This keeps you from getting overwhelmed in chaotic positions.
• In sparse positions, prioritize king safety and simple, clear plans rather than ambitious multi-piece tactics that require precise calculation.
• In Chess960, map out a quick development plan based on your pieces’ natural mobility, then adapt when your opponent’s pieces block typical squares.

Next steps

Implement the four-week practice plan above, track weekly progress, and re-check your openings performance and rating trend every 2–4 weeks. If you’d like, I can tailor a specific 4-week training schedule based on your current practice time and preferred study methods.