Coach Chesswick
Feedback for Rafał Lewandowski
Rafał, your recent games show several strengths as well as areas where you can focus to further improve your play:
Strengths
- Opening Preparation: Your choice of openings like the Tarrasch Defense, Sicilian Kan, and Scandinavian Defense reflects good knowledge of opening principles. You consistently develop pieces actively and castle timely for king safety.
- Endgame Technique: Your wins demonstrate solid endgame technique, especially converting material and positional advantages under time pressure. For example, in the game against DiegoJGdSilva, your precise coordination and king activity contributed to a clear win.
- Time Management: In most games, you manage your clock well and maintain reasonable time even in complex positions, allowing you to calculate with sufficient depth.
Areas to Improve
- Handling Complications: In some lost games (e.g., versus AndreyPichugin and SagittariusAstarBH), critical moments showed tactical oversights or less accurate piece coordination. Focus on solving tactical puzzles regularly to sharpen your calculation and spotting threats.
- Opening Awareness Against Certain Lines: A few losses came from openings like Sicilian Open Lowenthal Variation and Alapin Sicilian where your opponent gained early initiative. Consider adding specific preparation for these variations to avoid early pressure or inaccuracies.
- Positional Decision-Making: Improving your evaluation of positional trades and pawn breaks could help avoid giving opponents targets or better piece activity. For example, consider deepening understanding of pawn structures arising from the Tarrasch and Sicilian structures you frequently encounter.
Practical Suggestions
- Review your recent losses quietly and identify exact turns where the balance shifted to your opponent; take notes on alternative moves and ideas.
- Study thematic middlegame plans for your favored openings — e.g. typical pawn breaks and piece maneuvers.
- Integrate a tactical training routine daily or at least several times a week to strengthen calculation under time pressure.
- Use slow training games to practice critical moments and calculate deeper without time constraints.
- Try to stay calm and avoid rushing in complex positions—sometimes spending an extra 30 seconds can avoid a tactical mistake or blunder.
Keep up the hard work, and your results will continue to improve steadily!