Hi Jessica!
Great work breaking through the 2200-mark (current personal best: 2252 (2025-05-29)). Your recent win against rollinthunder shows how dangerous your initiative can be when you get the pieces rolling. Below is a quick summary of what you already do well, followed by three focused areas that will give you the biggest rating gain for the least study time.
What’s already working
- Opening variety & activity. You are comfortable steering the game into dynamic structures (King’s Indian with 4.Bf4, Anti-Fried Liver, Scandinavian side-lines). This keeps opponents out of book and hands you the initiative early.
- Tactical alertness. In the 22-move miniature vs. RollinThunder you spotted 11.Nd5!? and followed up with the neat Ne7+ fork. The conversion starting with 17.Bxh5! shows excellent pattern recognition.
- Confidence to sacrifice material. Your Italian win vs. giogobe featured the pawn sacrifice 8.e5 + 9.d5 to rip the centre, a decision that paid off with the Qh5+ / Qf7# finish.
Improvement priorities
1. Time management (highest ROI)
You lost three of the last five defeats on time in completely playable positions (vs. Cloud_2025, Swissfighter1 twice). Consider:
- Pre-move discipline. In forced reply sequences (recaptures, obvious king moves) trust yourself and pre-move.
- 30/30 rule. Aim to reach move 30 with ≥30 % of the initial clock. Practise in sparring games with a visible “time-left” widget.
- Chunked thinking. Use the opening and early middlegame to think on opponent’s time: create a candidate move list before the clock comes back to you.
2. End-of-game technique
The Caro-Kann loss to cloud_2025 shows solid middlegame play but the conversion slipped in the R+P ending. Two concrete drills:
- Key rook endgames. Work through the “Philidor” and “Lucena” positions until you can set them up from memory; they appear every ~40 games at your level.
- Opposition patterns. Use a puzzle set filtered for king-and-pawn endings (10–20 minutes per day).
3. Pawn-structure awareness
In several losses you pushed wing pawns early (a-pawn vs. Swissfighter1, h-pawns vs. Cloud_2025) and created weak squares behind them.
“Every pawn move creates a square you can no longer control.” – Nimzowitsch
Try adding prophylaxis to your move checklist: “What does my pawn push leave behind?” A quick game review with a coloured-square heatmap will help—see
to pick sessions for review.Training plan for the next 4 weeks
| Day | Content | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mon / Wed | 30 tactical puzzles (5-min timer) | Maintain sharpness |
| Tue / Thu | 15 min rook-ending drill + 1 annotated endgame from your own games | Fix conversion issues |
| Fri | Play 3 rapid games (10 + 5) with strict 30/30 rule | Clock discipline |
| Weekend | One full review session of the week’s games, mark critical pawn pushes | Structure awareness |
Micro-goals to track
- Lose on time in <5 % of games this month (was ~22 %).
- Convert 4/5 rook-and-pawn endgames where you are +1 or better.
- Keep early pawn pushes (before move 10) to ≤2 per game unless theory demands it.
Motivation corner
Your attacking style is your brand—thread in better clock usage and cleaner endings, and 2300+ is realistically within two seasons. Keep having fun over the board, and remember: “Accuracy is the twin of creativity.”
Good luck, and let me know how next month’s games go!
—Coach
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