Coach Chesswick
Hi Sarah! 🙋♀️ Here is your personalized post-game review and training plan
1. Snapshot of your current form
• Current peak blitz rating: 1331 (2021-02-28)
• Your results are sharply “streaky”; wins often come in bunches, but so do quick losses.
• Typical activity pattern:
2. What you are already doing well ✅
- Tactical awareness when you are on the attack. In your most recent win against straightbaked you spotted …
30…Re1+! followed by 35…Ng4+ and the elegant mate 37…Rh1#. Your pieces coordinated smoothly once the initiative was yours. - Open-file exploitation. Doubling rooks on the b-file (…Rfb8/…Rb7) in that same game shows good understanding of how to build long-term pressure.
- Willingness to seize space with pawn storms. Pushes like h4–h5 or f4–f5 give you attacking chances and keep opponents on the back foot.
3. Main growth areas 📈
- Early tactical blunders while you are still in “opening theory”.
In the loss to theo_s the natural looking 11.a3? 12.Bd3?? allowed …12…Nb3+! forking king & queen. Pattern to remember: in many King’s-Indian-type structures, once Black plays …a5–a4 you must secure b3 before retreating the bishop.
Training task: load the critical fragment and practice “blunder checks” for three moves before committing.
- Clock handling. Four of the last six losses were on time—even from winning or equal positions.
You are spending ~45 % of your total time in the first 10 moves and then bulleting the rest.
Training task: play three 10 | 5 games focusing on reaching move 15 with >5 min left. Use the extra increment to verify tactics. - Endgame conversion technique. In the 60-sec loss to ghilesmezoued you reached a won pawn ending but could not finish it off.
Study the basic Lucena and Philidor rook endings and the concept of the “square of the pawn” square of the pawn.
4. Recommended opening focus
| As White | As Black |
|---|---|
|
– Keep the London System as a practical weapon, but add one dynamic line (e.g. Catalan) to diversify. – Review traps where your queen lands on d2/c2 early—these squares are tactical magnets. |
– Your Ruy López – Old Steinitz set-up scores well; keep it in your repertoire. – Against 1.d4 you alternate between KID and QGD. Pick one for the next 20 games to deepen pattern recognition. |
5. Weekly action plan 🗓️
- Mon-Wed: 20 tactical puzzles/day, rated & themed (zwischenzug, clearance, fork]).
- Thu: Review two of your own games with an engine, but annotate before you turn it on. Focus on move-15 blunders.
- Fri: Endgame drill session (rook vs pawn, bishop of wrong colour, basic king & pawn).
- Weekend: Play at least one 15 | 10 “serious” game and share with a study group for feedback.
6. Motivational closer
You are already demonstrating sharp tactical instincts and a fighting spirit. By tightening up the early move blunder-check and improving time management, a jump of 100-150 rating points is absolutely realistic over the next two months. Let’s make it happen! 💪