Kaan Akbaş NM

What You're Doing Well

Kaan, your recent blitz games show strong positional understanding and tactical awareness, especially in openings like the Queens Pawn Opening. Your win against Eivissa displays confident handling of complex middle game positions, smoothly converting an initiative into a material advantage.

• Solid development and pressure-building in early moves.
• Good use of piece coordination to create threats.
• Effective transition from opening to middle game with strong control of key squares.
• Strong focus on opponent king safety to create winning chances.

Areas to Improve

In your recent losses, some recurring themes to address include handling counterattacks and endgame accuracy. For example, games with complex pawn structures and active opponent pieces require sharper calculation and vigilance against tactical shots. Also, beware of dropping control in key moments during the endgame.

• Improve calculation during critical moments, especially in tactical skirmishes.
• Watch for opponent counterplay and make proactive threats to prevent it.
• Refine endgame technique to convert advantages or save difficult positions.
• Work on time management; avoid spending too much time early on, keeping enough clock for complex phases.

Opening Insight

Your opening repertoire shows good variety, with solid performance in the French Defense (75% win rate) and respectable results in the Alekhine Defense and Caro-Kann Defense. We recommend continuing to deepen your study of these lines to maintain consistency.

Consider working on some less successful openings like the Bird Opening: Dutch Variation, aiming to understand typical pitfalls and ways to neutralize opponent pressure early.

Rating and Performance Trends

Your long-term rating trend is positive, with steady gains over 6 to 12 months and a high skill level reflected in your current rating around 2600+. Despite the slight recent slowdown (around -18 rating in the last month), your rating trend slope for the last month is positive (17.6), indicating that focused effort can lead to immediate improvement.

• Your strength-adjusted win rate suggests you're competing well, but there is room to raise your consistency.
• Continue to review losses carefully to avoid repeat mistakes.

Practical Recommendations

• Analyze your critical lost positions in detail, looking for missed tactical motifs or strategic inaccuracies.
• Practice endgame fundamentals, especially rook and pawn endgames similar to those in your recent games.
• Use slow games to test new ideas and deepen strategic understanding before applying in blitz.
• Time management drills can enhance your ability to maintain accuracy under time pressure.
• Review key concepts in your strongest openings to reinforce confidence and reduce risk in the early game.

Next Steps

Keep leveraging your strengths while targeting tactical sharpness and endgame precision. The steady improvements in your rating and strong opening results show that incremental work will yield upward momentum.

Feel free to revisit Kaan Akbaş's game history to reflect on patterns and continue refining your approach.