Coach Chesswick
Quick summary (blitz-focused)
You’re playing strong, practical blitz: active openings, accurate conversions, and good endgame technique. Main short-term gains come from tightening time management and simplifying your opening choices in high-pressure moments.
What you’re doing well
- Active piece play and imbalance creation — you seek activity early and punish passive replies.
- Conversion ability — when you win material you press the advantage, often pushing passed pawns and using the king actively in the endgame.
- Practical endgame technique — many wins show you understand how to manoeuvre rook and king to convert advantages.
- Solid results from prepared lines: your QGD Tarrasch line performs very well (QGD Tarrasch: 4.cxd5), and your French structures are reliable (French Defense).
Key weaknesses to fix (fast improvement)
- Time trouble: several decisive results came from clocks. In the last minute, simplify—trade or make easy improving moves rather than deep calculations.
- Nimzo consistency: your Nimzo scores are mixed — pick one reliable setup to avoid early inaccuracies (Nimzo-Indian Defense).
- Allowing counterplay: when ahead you sometimes let opponents create passed pawns or active rook play; practice converting with prophylaxis (stop opponent activity before racing pawns).
- Tactical slips under pressure: keep a fast safety-check (hanging pieces, checks, captures, threats) during time scrambles.
Concrete 2‑week plan (blitz-friendly)
- Daily 15-minute tactics sprint, target average solve time 3–5s to train speed under pressure.
- Three 30-minute endgame sessions this week: Lucena, Philidor, king+rook vs king basics and simple pawn races.
- Make two 10–15 move opening cheat-sheets: one Nimzo setup and one QGD Tarrasch mainline. Learn typical middlegame plans, not long move-lists.
- Adopt a 30-second rule under 1 minute: pick the move that improves a piece, simplifies, or creates an immediate threat — avoid long calculation loops.
- After each session: 1-minute postmortem per game. Note the single biggest mistake and the fix (e.g., “trade to simplify when low on time”).
Lessons from the recent win vs cansar10
- What you did well: you turned an active middlegame into a passed pawn and converted cleanly — good patience and technique.
- What to tidy: you allowed counterplay with central pawn pushes in a couple of moments. Next time trade to remove the counterplay when you’re ahead and low on time.
- Study this short sequence to see the conversion pattern: active rook/king + pushing the g/h pawn to create decisive passed pawns.
Practical checklist for your next 10 blitz games
- First 10 moves: follow your cheat-sheet plan; if the opponent sidesteps, choose a safe transposition or a single clear plan.
- When up material: trade down to a winning endgame unless there’s a forced tactic.
- Under 1 minute: avoid long pawn moves; prefer piece-improving or simplifying moves.
- If your opponent is flag-prone: keep pressure but stop their key counterplay piece (exchange it or fix its target).
- After each game: log one takeaway — tactic miss, time error, or opening surprise — and aim to avoid it next session.
Final note
Your strength-adjusted win rate and long rating history show elite blitz ability. Focus on time management, narrow opening choices, and targeted endgame work — those small changes will flip many close losses into wins. Want a 7-day training plan based on this? I’ll draft it for your openings and time-control.