Janos Szabolcsi IM

Overall Performance and Trends

Janos, congratulations on maintaining a solid performance in your blitz games! Your strength adjusted win rate is slightly over 50%, showing consistency against strong opposition. Over the last year, you have an encouraging upward rating trend, with an increase of over 100 points in six months and positive slopes in your rating trends across 1, 6, and 12 months. This indicates a steady improvement in your play, especially in the recent months where your rating has climbed by 6 points in the last month alone.

Recent Game Insights

• Your recent wins often stem from strong opening play and positional understanding, especially in Queen's Pawn and King's Pawn openings, including the St George Defense and the Semi-Tarrasch variation in the Queen's Gambit Declined. These indicate a good grasp of solid strategic foundations.
• Your losses show some challenges mostly in complex middlegame positions, particularly against pressure along the center and in some Sicilian and Caro-Kann structures. This suggests areas to focus on improving tactical awareness and defense under pressure in blitz conditions.
• You have performed well converting advantages, often forcing resignations or winning on time, indicating strong time management and conversion skills in fast-paced games.

Opening Choices and Recommendations

You demonstrate a broad opening repertoire with openings like the Semi-Slav, Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack, Queen's Gambit Declined, and various Sicilian Defense lines. This variety helps keep opponents guessing but also requires consistent study to handle resulting positions confidently.

• Continue sharpening your knowledge of key pawn breaks and piece maneuvers in your preferred openings, especially the Caro-Kann and Queen's Gambit families, to deepen your middle game plans.
• Review critical moments in games where your opponent successfully challenged your central control or created tactical threats, particularly in sharp Sicilian and Budapest Gambit variations.
• Use the openings where you have the highest success rates as your main weapons, and work on consolidating your positions early so you can handle the middlegame pressure more confidently.

Areas for Improvement

• Handling Pressure in the Middlegame: Some losses occurred after tactical complications or when your opponents applied pressure on weakened squares. Practice tactical puzzles and analyze your games to spot recurring patterns.
• Defensive Technique: Strengthen your defensive skills by studying models of resilient players who can hold difficult positions and gradually counterattack.
• Time Management: Although you convert many wins on time, continue balancing quick decision-making with accuracy to reduce the chance of blunders in tight spots.

Next Steps

To keep climbing, consider the following:

• Analyze your recent loss games from move 10-30 and identify strategic or tactical turning points. Focus on why certain plans or tactics worked against you.
• Practice your opening repertoire routinely, especially the lines appearing in your recent successful games, to build confidence and speed.
• Incorporate endgame studies into your training, as converting advantages is key to blitz success.
• Play training games focused on your weaker openings or defensive skills to gain experience in those rare but critical positions.

Keep up the great work, Janos! Your steady improvement is promising, and with targeted practice, you can continue to enhance your blitz performance.