Coach Chesswick
Quick overview
Nice run over the last few days — you keep creating kingside chances and you’re finishing games when the opponent cracks. At the same time you still bleed time and occasionally miss simple tactical shots in chaotic positions. Below I’ve pulled concrete, actionable points from your recent games (wins vs BidakBaruwing and chalito19, and losses vs BidakBaruwing and garry_poker).
What you did well
- Active piece play and direct attacking intent — in your Caro‑Kann game you pushed on the kingside decisively and exploited the opponent’s light‑square weaknesses. (See the short replay below.)
- Good pattern recognition in tactical sequences — you’re quick to trade into lines that favour your initiative rather than passively defending.
- Opening preparation that puts opponents under early pressure — several of your opening choices (e.g. the setups that lead to sharp pawn breaks) are giving you practical chances in blitz.
- Resilience: when you get into worse time situations you still find practical continuations rather than immediately flagging out early — this shows good instincts under stress.
Key mistakes and what to fix
- Time management / clock handling
- You lost at least one game on time in a winning-ish position. In 180+2 blitz the increment is small — don’t spend >30 seconds on obvious moves in equal positions. Create a clock plan (openings quick, think in critical moments).
- Practical tip: move faster in familiar opening lines and reserve time for tactics and endgames.
- Tactical oversight at transitions
- A couple of losses came after allowing queen/rook infiltration or a simple mating/net tactic. In blitz you need a 1‑move safety check before you move: “Does any check, capture or mate exist for either side?”
- Practice: finish every move with that 3‑second safety scan.
- Endgame technique under time pressure
- Rook + pawns vs rook endgames and rook activity were decisive in the Garry_Poker game. When ahead or equal in pawn structure, simplify only if you can convert with low calculation cost.
- Occasional passive piece placement
- In some middlegames your pieces got tied to passive squares while the opponent’s pieces gained activity (e.g. rooks on open files). Prioritize rooks on open/half‑open files and knights to outposts.
Concrete training plan (next 2 weeks)
- Daily 15–20 minute tactic session — focus on mating patterns, forks and back‑rank motifs (these are the recurring issues in your losses).
- 3 × 15–20 minute focused blitz sessions (3+2 or 5+2):
- Session A: Play only your best‑performing practical openings (repeat the same line 10 games) to build automaticity.
- Session B: Play a “slow opening” session — don’t spend more than 15 seconds per opening move to simulate saving time for the middlegame.
- Session C: Play endgame drills — basic rook endgames, active rook vs passive rook, king and pawn conversions.
- One post‑mortem per day for a recent game (5–10 minutes): identify the single turning move and your clock at that point. Mark the exact moment you spent too much time.
- Study micro‑openings: keep playing your high win‑rate lines (Colle variations, Australian Defense, Amar Gambit if you like complications) and prune the low win‑rate ones (e.g. the QGD line and certain Philidor setups) from your blitz rotation — at least until you’ve fixed the tactical leaks.
Practical blitz tips you can apply right away
- Before every move ask: “Any checks/captures/threats?” — if yes, resolve them first. This prevents leaving yourself open to back‑rank and queen forks.
- Use the increment: when you have 10+ seconds, play safe, practical moves and avoid long calculation battles unless the position is clearly winning.
- If you’re objectively better and the position is technical, simplify to an endgame you know how to convert quickly (avoid giving the opponent counterplay).
- Pre‑memorize 2 move orders in each opening you play to save 20–30 seconds early on.
- When beating lower time players, force simplifications or create zugzwang with active rooks — many opponents crack under pressure rather than superior strategy.
Short annotated examples
Replay the winning kingside plan vs BidakBaruwing — note how you forced lines to open and brought the queen/knight into attack:
Review the loss by time vs BidakBaruwing: you reached an active final position but ran out of seconds. That’s the high‑value low‑effort area to fix.
Next steps
- Today: 15 minutes tactics + 1 5|2 session (use only one opening from your “safe” list).
- This week: 3 post‑mortems — pick the loss on time and two blunders and annotate the one turning move each time.
- If you want, send me one PGN (a single game you want deep feedback on) and I’ll give a line‑by‑line checklist of where to save time and where you missed tactics.
Motivation / final note
Your attacking intuition and choice of practical openings give you lots of winning chances in blitz. Fixing two small things — the 3‑second safety check and a disciplined opening clock plan — will convert many more of those chances into wins. Keep the aggression, tighten the clock management, and the rating will follow.