Quick summary
Nice session — solid wins and a couple of teachable losses. Your rating trend is trending up (big jump last month), your knights and central play are working well, but time management and a few tactical slips cost you in tight spots. Below I highlight what you did well, recurring issues, and a practical plan you can follow over the next week.
Highlights from a recent win
Good example of converting an active minor-piece/endgame advantage into a win. You used knight outposts and central control to create a passed pawn and invading knight. You stayed calm in time trouble and pushed the opponent until they resigned.
- Opponent: flo93livry
- Opening shown: Queen's Gambit Accepted
- Replay the finish (quick viewer):
What you're doing well
- Active piece play — your knights find strong outposts and you use them to create concrete threats.
- Endgame sense — you tend to simplify into favorable minor-piece/endgame positions and convert with patience.
- Opening repertoire strength — your Caro‑Kann and Exchange lines show a high win-rate; you know your typical plans there.
- Momentum — recent rating trend is excellent (+223 in 1 month). That shows consistent improvement and good study habits.
Recurring issues to fix
- Time management: a few games were lost on time or ended with very little clock left. With a small increment (3+2), it's vital to be quicker in familiar positions and use your two seconds per move to avoid flagging.
- Tactical oversight under pressure: watch for opponent queen infiltrations and loose pieces. In the loss to alexmonge14 you allowed a decisive queen capture on the b-file — be alert to back-rank and loose pawn tactics.
- Opening instability in some lines: you perform very well in Caro‑Kann variations but some Nimzo/QGD/Slav lines gave you trouble. Decide which lines you want to play and rehearse typical move orders so you save clock time there.
- Conversion choices under time pressure: when ahead, simplify and trade down toward a clear winning endgame rather than complicating when the clock is low.
Concrete next steps (7–14 day plan)
- Daily 15–20 minutes tactics — focus on forks, pins, discovered attacks and queen traps. Short sessions beat marathon sessions for blitz improvement.
- 3 training games at 10+5 this week — force yourself to spend a little extra time in the opening and critical transitions (move 10–20) to break the habit of moving too quickly.
- One game review per day (5–10 minutes): open a lost or close game, find the critical turning point, and write down the candidate moves before checking an engine. This builds pattern recognition.
- Practice two "safe pre-move" patterns and two "never pre-move" rules to prevent surprise blunders when flagging.
- Pick one opening line you struggle with (example: the Nimzo lines you recently faced) and learn the first 8–10 moves and the typical plans for both sides.
Practical tips for blitz conversion
- If you have a pawn or minor-piece advantage, simplify towards a knight vs bishop or knight+rook endgame you understand — trade queens if it reduces counterplay.
- When ahead on the clock: keep the position complicated only if the complication increases your opponent's chance to blunder. Otherwise simplify.
- Use your increment: make a short, useful move (developing or a waiting move) every 10–12 moves to keep time banks healthy.
- Guard weak squares and pawns (b7, c2/c3, back rank) — many quick tactics in blitz exploit these targets.
Recommended focused studies
- Tactics: pins, forks, discovered checks (20–30 puzzles/day for 10–15 min).
- Endgames: basic knight & rook endgames and how to convert a passed pawn with king support (pick 3 textbook positions and drill them).
- Openings: keep the Caro‑Kann and Exchange lines as your core — add one stable reply to the Nimzo/QGD setups you face often and memorize typical plans rather than move-by-move theory.
Example game to review with me
If you want, I can annotate any of these games. A good candidate to review together is the loss to alexmonge14 — it contains tactical motifs and a time-management lesson.
Closing — keep building momentum
Your recent slope and one‑month jump show you're doing the right things. Tighten the clock habits, do small tactical and endgame drills, and you'll turn more of those close games into wins. If you want, tell me which game you'd like a full annotated review of and I’ll mark the critical moments and give move-by-move alternatives.