Vadim D. Berg IM

Constructive Feedback for Vadim D. Berg

Congratulations on maintaining a strong blitz presence around the 2350-2400 mark and for recently reaching 2535 (2024-06-22)! Your dynamic style and willingness to take practical decisions under time pressure are clear assets. Below is a summary of what is working well and a set of targeted suggestions to accelerate further improvement.

What you already do well

• Early central control & development. In most wins you seize space with e- and d-pawns (e.g. French Advance win vs lucunning). This ensures you dictate the pawn structure.
• Tactical alertness. Motifs such as Bxf7⁺, Qxf7⁺ and exchange sacrifices (e.g. 22.Rxe6! vs jokubasval) often appear in your victories and convert directly to material or mating nets.
• Conversion technique. Once up material you generally simplify efficiently, as shown by the rook end-game conversion in your win over dmch0000.
• Practical time handling. You keep a reserve of ~45-60 s in sharp positions, forcing opponents to flag in inferior end-games.

Recurrent issues in the recent losses

• Loose king safety in the Anti-Sicilians. Games vs Tanisha Boramanikar and Nadya Toncheva show your pawns on f- and h-files racing forward while your own king remains on the first rank. Counter-checks on the dark squares (…Qb6, …Rc8) become hard to meet.
• Under-estimating outposts. In several defeats Black landed a knight on d4 or c4 (see position after 14…Nb6 vs Slayyy_200). These pieces anchored the opponent’s play and cost you the initiative.
• End-game resource management. In the marathon vs ChessSwole you reached a technically holdable rook & rook+pawn ending but drifted when your clock dipped under 15 s. End-game speed drills could save 1-2 half-points per session.
• Premature pawn breaks as Black in the Najdorf. Early …h5 or …b5 without full coordination (loss to Whiteking2009) left weaknesses on g6/b6. Delay pawn thrusts until pieces cover the resulting squares.

Action plan (next 4–6 weeks)

1. Tighten your Anti-Sicilian repertoire. Exchange Bb5+ lines are fine, but prepare the main equalising continuation after 10…Rc8 (or consider the 3.Bb5 d6 positional plan with 0-0 & Re1). A small theory refresh will pay off quickly.
2. Add prophylactic questions to your move-selection routine. Before executing any pawn push ask “what is my opponent’s best counter-punch?”—especially checks on the b6–e3 diagonal and rook swings to c-/f-files.
3. End-game speed training. Spend 10 min daily on rook-vs-pawn races at <10 s/side. Sites like Chess.com drills or Lichess Trainer (offline PGN) work well. Aim for >80 % accuracy.
4. Structure-oriented review of your Sicilian Najdorf games. Tag each of the last 20 Black games with the pawn structure that arose (Maróczy, Scheveningen, Keres Attack, etc.). For every recurring structure, build a 5-position flash-card deck to rehearse typical plans.
5. Weekly self-analysis with engine “off”. Pick one win and one loss; spend 15 min annotating critical moments, then compare with stockfish. Focus on missed defensive resources (e.g. in the Slayyy_200 game 28…Nd4! was critical).

Illustrative recent game

The following victory neatly shows your strengths—space grab, kingside pressure and clean conversion:

Progress trackers

Closing words

Keep leveraging your tactical intuition, but balance it with one extra layer of prophylaxis and end-game speed work. These modest adjustments should convert several near-misses into wins and push your blitz rating beyond 2450. Good luck, and enjoy the journey!