Ethan Sheehan NM

Feedback for Ethan Sheehan

What you’re doing well

• Initiative-first mindset – In your recent win against Kevin George you consistently asked Black tough questions. Moves such as 21.d4! and the exchange sacrifice 39.Nxb4! show an excellent feel for dynamic imbalance.
• Finding resources when low on time – Your conversion from move 34 onwards (Kf1-d3-c4-b5, etc.) was played with seconds on the clock. That indicates good pattern recognition under pressure.
• Practical opening choices in 960 – You regularly castle early and fight for the centre. This “safety first, centre second” recipe is perfect for rapid Chess960 games.

Areas to focus on next

• Pawn-structure awareness
  In the loss to Aakash G you advanced the f- and h-pawns (…f6, …h5) without a clear plan, weakening the dark squares around your king. Before pushing a wing pawn, pause and ask: “What squares become weak, and can my opponent exploit them immediately?”
• Prophylaxis in equal endgames
  Against Aleksei Sarana and Pablo Salinas Herrera you let winning chances slip after reaching roughly equal rook-and-pawn endings. Train “defend first, then improve” techniques such as the umbrella and the Vancura draw.
• Time-management patterns
  On moves 25-35 you often drop below 30 seconds. Use two checkpoints:
  – After move 15 take a 5-second inventory.
  – Before entering any forcing sequence, spend up to 10 seconds calculating once, rather than 3-second bursts every move.
• Recognising intermediate moves (Zwischenzug)
  In the English loss (ChessLover0108) 20…Rxd2! was strong, but 21…Qxe6 allowed White to coordinate. Look for forcing in-between moves before recapturing automatically.

Concrete training plan

1. Weekly end-game drill: 20 minutes of rook-vs-rook endings from Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual. Focus on Philidor position and Lucena bridge.
2. Play one slow (15 + 10) game per day and annotate the first 20 moves, highlighting every pawn move and its long-term consequence.
3. Calculate three “easy tactics” sets daily; then one “deep calculation” puzzle where you write down candidate lines for at least three plies.

Quick stats & motivation boosters

Your current peak blitz rating: . Keep pushing toward the next milestone!

When you play during your best performance window (

Weekend streaks are impressive too – see

Highlight game to review

Revisit this critical middlegame sequence and note how you converted the space advantage:

Next steps

If you’d like a deeper dive, send me 3-5 positions where you felt uncertain and we’ll build a customised decision-tree for each.

Good luck, and enjoy the process! – Coach