What You Are Doing Well
You are playing at a very high level and the last month shows real momentum. Your rating has climbed sharply, and the way you convert attacking chances is the biggest reason. In your win over Shaaketh Sivakumar you kept finding forcing moves once the pawns started rolling, and you finished with a clean checkmate instead of drifting into a safe but slower endgame. That instinct to punish a loosened king is a genuine strength.
You also handle sharp, unbalanced openings with confidence. Your results with the Blackburne Shilling Gambit and with trapping lines where you plant a knight on a strong central square, like the win over Maciej Klekowski, show you are comfortable creating immediate problems rather than just playing safe moves.
Here is that win against maciek_92 for review:
King Safety Is Your Biggest Middlegame Leak
Across the recent losses, a recurring theme is your own king getting boxed in while you are busy attacking. In the win you gave up, the final blow was a rook delivering mate on the back rank after your king had no escape square and your pieces could not come back in time. In another loss the opponent landed a check with the queen and then a knight check that finished the game. These are not random accidents. They are what happens when your attacking pieces drift far from home and you do not spend one move creating breathing room.
Practical habit to build: before you launch a pawn storm or push a piece deep, ask whether your king has a free square to step into. One quiet pawn move or one piece kept near the king prevents most of these finishes. Treat king safety as part of your attack, not a separate phase.
Rook Endgames: Where the Points Are Slipping
Your losses to Novendra Priasmoro followed a very similar script. You trade down into a rook endgame, often with a passed pawn for each side, and then the pawn race goes against you. In one game the opponent's rook got behind your pawns first, snapped up your queenside pawns, and promoted before your own passer could run. In another, your active king and rook could not stop the opposing passer in time.
Two things to sharpen here. First, in a pawn race the rook belongs behind the passer, yours or theirs, and the checking distance matters more than grabbing pawns. Second, when you are the one pushing, count the tempos out loud. If you cannot promote first or force a draw, stop the opponent's pawn instead of racing. Review the longest of those games to see exactly where the race turned:
Opening Choices to Lean Into
Your results show you do best in positions with clear plans and early tension. The Sicilian Defense and the Modern Defense are both big parts of your repertoire, and they suit your style, but you tend to get slightly worse positions in the quieter Modern structures when the opponent just grabs space. Consider mixing in a sharper setup there, or study one model plan for the Modern so you are not improvising move by move.
Your win rate with the Blackburne Shilling Gambit stands out well above your average. When a line is clearly working for you, it is worth deepening your prep in it rather than spreading effort evenly across everything.
Blitz Practicalities
- Your clock dropped low in several games while the position was still complicated. Try to cash in on a clear advantage earlier instead of playing the most ambitious move every time.
- When you are ahead in material, simplify toward an ending you know rather than keeping all the pieces on against a dangerous opponent.
- After each loss, spend thirty seconds on one question: was it a tactical miss, a king safety issue, or an endgame technique problem? You will start to see your own patterns fast.
Bottom Line
You have a strong attacking game and real tactical feel, and your rating trend is heading the right way. The clearest path to more points is tightening up your own king and learning a few reliable rook and pawn ending patterns. Fix those two areas and the close games against players like Novendra Priasmoro will start going your way.