Levon Altounian IM

Overview

Nice run in rapid — you're converting sharp advantages, building passed pawns and finishing aggressively. Your recent wins show confidence in tactical complications and an eye for pawn promotion races. Below are focused notes that will keep turning those promising positions into a steady rating gain.

What you're doing well

• Relentless kingside pressure: you routinely create threats that force the opponent's king to wander (see the long game where early pawn pushes on the flank lead to a decisive assault).
• Converting material+pawn advantages into multiple promotions — excellent technique backing up a concrete plan to queen pawns and coordinate many queens.
• Tactical vision: you spot and execute tactical shots (captures and sacrifices) that simplify into winning endgames instead of allowing counterplay.
• Opening portfolio with high winrates in several lines — exploit that strength by steering games into familiar structures (e.g., your Four Knights lines are very reliable: Four).
• Good use of simplification when ahead — exchanging down into winning king-and-pawn races rather than keeping complications that favor your opponent.

Key areas to improve

• Early flank pawns and overextension — moves like an early a5 and h6 can be powerful but also create holes and targets. Make sure each pawn thrust has a concrete follow-up (don't push just to push).
• Prophylaxis and preventing counterplay — after you win material, double-check the opponent's tactical resources (knight forks, back-rank checks, counterattacks on the queenside) before simplifying.
• Time management: several wins were flagged or finished very quickly — keep time in reserve for complex endgames where precise calculation matters (practice keeping ~2–3 minutes for the final phase in 10|0 games).
• Opening refinement vs lower-rated but tricky opponents — even against weaker players you can get surprised by odd defenses; have 1–2 safe transpositions ready to neutralize unusual sidelines.
• Cleaning up technique in queen/rook-and-pawn endgames — when you create extra queens, coordinate them quickly; avoid drifting into repetitive checks that allow the defense to survive longer than necessary.

Concrete drills and a 4‑week plan

• Daily (20–30 min): tactics puzzles focused on forks, pins, and mating nets. Aim for accuracy, not speed — 50 correct in a row is better than 200 rushed.
• 3× weekly (30 min): endgame practice — queen vs king with pawns, queen(s) coordination, and basic rook endgames. Use short drills: promote a pawn and force mate, or defend vs a single passed pawn.
• Weekly (1–2 games): play a rapid game where you deliberately choose a quiet, positional opening to practice prophylaxis and slow technique (no wild pawn storms for that game).
• Game review (after each longer session): pick 1 loss and 1 win. Annotate the turning point — what candidate moves did you miss? Who had the initiative? This builds pattern recognition.
• Opening checklist: pick 3 openings to keep top-sharp (your best-performing lines + one surprise line). Drill move orders and typical pawn structures for 15 minutes twice a week.

Positional/tactical checklist (before you move)

• Checks, captures, threats — any forcing moves that win material or change the nature of the position?
• King safety — is your king exposed after an aggressive pawn push or piece trades?
• Opponent counterplay — which pieces can become active if you simplify?
• Pawn breaks — will pushing create passed pawns or just weaknesses?
• Time budget — do you have enough clock to calculate the resulting endgame?

Notable moment from your most recent win

The game where you pushed flank pawns early and then simplified by winning material is instructive: you turned an aggressive pawn storm into a concrete material advantage, exchanged into a winning queen/pawn race and converted with multiple promotions. Replay the full sequence to study transition decisions:

Opponent profile: %3Callentadevosian%3E

Replay the game (interactive):

Study points from that sequence: the value of exchanging into a pawn race, when to stop looking for fancy continuations and force promotions, and how to use spare tempi with queen maneuvers to trap the king.

Next steps (short & actionable)

• For the next 2 weeks, do 20 tactics/day and 3 endgame drills/week (queen vs pawn, rook endgame basics).
• Review one won game and one lost game per week with brief notes: "what I missed" and "what I did well".
• Pick one opening line to tighten (keep it simple and reduce early overextensions), and force yourself to play it in 5 rapid games.

If you want, I can convert one of your wins into a short annotated lesson (step‑by‑step, plain English) — tell me which game and I’ll walk through the turning points.