LaxmanRay

Quick summary

Nice work — you’re creating decisive passed-pawn play and converting it reliably when the position opens up. The recent win vs voldermott shows good patience and concrete calculation in a pawn‑race. Your losses show a recurring theme: missed promotion/back-rank threats and occasional tactical oversights. Below are targeted, practical steps to keep your wins and reduce these common losses.

What you’re doing well

• Creating and pushing passed pawns effectively — you converted a central passed pawn all the way to promotion in your recent win (excellent sense for pawn races and tempo).
• Switching to the right plan: you often identify when to simplify into a pawn race or to trade into a winning endgame.
• Keeping piece activity — your pieces usually end up on active squares in the middlegame which generates practical winning chances.
• Resilience: you play many games and don’t shy from complex positions — that experience accelerates improvement.

Most important things to improve (concrete)

• Always count to promotion. When the opponent has a passed pawn (or you do), calculate the race: how many moves until promotion for each side and who can stop it. Several recent losses came from missing an opponent pawn queening threat.
• Back-rank & luft awareness. Before making a move that trades material or retreats a defender, scan for back‑rank mates and promotion squares. Simple step: ask “Does my king have an escape square?” after each move.
• Tactical scanning before committing. Spend an extra 2–6 seconds to check opponent forcing moves (captures, checks, promotions). Many decisive moments were tactical oversights rather than long-term strategic mistakes.
• Endgame technique practice — rook and pawn races, defending vs passed pawns, and basic queen vs pawn promotion positions. Convert winning pawn advantages more confidently and defend promotion threats more reliably.
• Time management: keep a small buffer (5–10s) to avoid blunders in the final moments. If you trend toward faster play when winning, force yourself to slow down in critical moments (promotion races, attacks).

Concrete drills & short-term plan (2–4 weeks)

• Daily (10–20 minutes): tactics focused on promotion races, mates and back-rank patterns — 10 puzzles per day with emphasis on motifs you missed.
• Every other day (15 minutes): 6–8 endgame exercises — king + pawn vs king, rook vs pawn, and queen vs pawn promotion races. Practice the technique of blockading and placing the rook behind passed pawns.
• Weekly (1–2 hours): review 5 of your recent losses and wins in depth — identify the turning move in each game. For the win vs voldermott mark where the passed-pawn plan started; for the loss vs aliyazdan369 identify how the promotion threat was missed.
• Play with intention: 10 rapid games where your focus is “count to promotion” — after each game write 1 sentence: what did I miss about promotion/back-rank?

One‑minute checklists to use during games

• Before you move: “Any checks? Any captures? Any promotions?” (If yes, calculate immediately.)
• If opponent has a passed pawn: count moves to promotion for both sides and ask “Can I stop it with my king/rook?”
• Before leaving king-side or trading a defender: ensure the back rank has luft or a piece guarding key squares.
• In pawn races: keep your king active and put rooks behind passed pawns (your rooks are great at supporting promotion if placed correctly).

Notable recent game — replay and key moment

Replay your recent win vs voldermott (focus on how the central passed pawn became decisive):

Use the viewer below to replay the game — look especially at the moment you decided to push the pawns and the promotion sequence.

Tactical patterns to drill (short list)

• Promotion races: blocking, king vs king races, and rook-behind-pawn technique.
• Back-rank mate prevention: creating luft, moving rooks to cover escape squares.
• Interference and deflection tactics around promotion squares.
• Basic queen+rook vs pawn endgames where a pawn is one move from queening.

Next steps (this week)

• Do 3 promotion-race puzzles and 7 back-rank puzzles in your tactics trainer every day for 7 days.
• Analyze two losses with an engine and write down the single move that changed the evaluation each time.
• Play a focused session of 10 rapid games where your post‑game note is just: “Did I count to promotion?”

Want me to review a game in detail?

Paste one PGN (or point to a single game) and I’ll give a short move‑by‑move post‑mortem with 3-5 candidate improvements and one training exercise tailored to that game. For example I can review the win vs voldermott or the loss vs aliyazdan369.