Jon DeBruin

Hi Jon!

You have made steady progress around the 800-900 range and are racking up some nice tactical wins. Below is an honest but encouraging assessment based on your recent games against RealBadSanta, hungry_jase and others.

1. Quick snapshot

• Current peak ratings: 934 (2023-07-20) , 1031 (2025-02-18)
• Typical play times:
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• Favourite openings: 1.e4/1.d4 as White, Sicilian …c5 and Queen’s Gambit Accepted as Black.
• Main result pattern: decisive tactical wins in Daily chess, quick collapses in Live games (often on time).

2. What you already do well

1. Tactical alertness. You spot “free stuff” and aren’t afraid of combinations such as 9. Qxh8 or the deflection 16.Nxd5.
2. Activity over material. You often choose active piece placements (e.g. 26.d7!! in the win below) and keep pushing for promotion.
3. Confidence with the initiative. When the opponent’s king is drafty you throw pawns and pieces forward, which is great in this rating band.

3. Biggest improvement levers

1. Opening discipline. Early pawn moves such as …h6, …a6, g4/h4 cost tempi and weaken dark squares. Follow the “three golden rules”: develop pieces, control the centre, castle.
2. King safety. Four of your recent losses feature an uncastled or over-exposed king. Make “Is my king safe?” a compulsory question every two moves.
3. Time management. You lost a winning position on move 41 simply by running out of time. Build a mental clock: opening <12%>, middlegame <55%>, ending <33%>.
4. End-game technique. Once pieces are traded you sometimes drift (e.g. opposite-coloured-bishop ending vs. Hungry_Jase). Basic king-and-pawn endings and rook endings will net you 50-100 rating points fast.

4. A critical moment from your best recent win

Note how you combined tactics and pawn promotion:

• 26.d7! was a beautiful passed-pawn thrust.
• The move was also a zwischenzug zwischenzug, forcing Black’s rook away before promoting.

5. Opening “tightening” plan

Sticking to just these three structures for 3-6 months will simplify opening prep and free brain-power for middlegame plans.

6. Weekly training menu

1. 30 min puzzle rush / rated tactics – focus on forks fork, pins and back-rank mates.
2. 2 annotated games – take your own Daily games, switch the engine off, add verbal notes, then compare with the engine afterwards.
3. End-game module (1 position/day). Start with king + pawn vs. king; graduate to basic rook endings.
4. Play 3 rapid games (15 + 10) a week, applying the time-split rule above. Analyse immediately afterwards.

7. Motivational checkpoint

If you follow the plan for six weeks you should comfortably reach 1000 Daily and 950 Rapid. At that point we’ll add attacking themes and minor-piece end-games.

Keep the energy and creativity, Jon—just add a layer of structure and your rating graph will spike!

Good luck and enjoy the journey.