Coach Chesswick
Feedback for Liudmila Mokriak
Hi Liudmila, I’ve reviewed some of your recent games and I’m pleased to see your fighting spirit and tactical alertness leading to some excellent victories, including sharp attacking checkmates. Here are some focused points to help you continue improving:
Strengths
- Opening Preparation: Your choice of openings and understanding of mainline principles, such as in the Queen's Gambit Accepted and French Defense structures, show solid knowledge. This gives you a good foundation going into the middlegame.
- Tactical Awareness: You are alert to tactical opportunities—securing material and initiating decisive threats such as pins and forks that lead to checkmate or material gain.
- Endgame Technique: Several wins demonstrate good technique in converting advantages into wins, showing your patience and calculation skills in simplified positions.
Areas for Improvement
- Time Management: Some losses ended on time or involved time pressure decisions. Try to allocate your time more evenly throughout the game, especially in complex middlegame positions. Practicing increment time controls or longer formats may help sharpen your practical pacing.
- Mistake Reduction in Defense: In a few games, small inaccuracies in defensive positions or pawn structures allowed your opponents to gain decisive advantages. Focus on improving your positional understanding and defensive maneuvering. Studying defense strategies and practicing thematic defensive motifs can be valuable.
- Move Order and Calculation: Occasionally, premature attacks or aggressive moves without full calculation led to counterplay for your opponents. Before committing to sharp tactics, ensure you calculate your opponent’s best responses fully. Slow down and double-check critical moves.
Next Steps
- Analyze your losses in detail: Review your recent most challenging games (like the one against Chessgod1964) to identify recurring mistakes, especially in middle and endgames.
- Focus on strategic training: Learn key concepts in pawn structures and piece coordination to better defend and trade pieces advantageously.
- Set time goals: Practice games with a slight increase in time per move or with increments to reduce losses on time.
- Continue tactical drills: Reinforce your tactical vision with puzzles tailored to your current rating to maintain sharpness.
Keep up the great work and maintain your fighting spirit! With steady improvements in defense and time management, you’ll see your results improve even more.
Feel free to share any specific games or positions you want to analyze further.