Mads Vestby-Ellingsen IM

Overview of recent blitz play

Nice work staying active in blitz and keeping your fights dynamic. You’ve shown you can generate pressure and keep pieces coordinating on the king’s side and in open lines. The variety of openings you’ve used indicates comfort with unfamiliar setups and midgame improvisation. Below are focused ideas to build on your strengths and tighten up areas that can swing more games in your favor.

What you’re doing well

• Active piece play and tactical imagination. You often coordinate heavy pieces (rooks and queen) to create multiple threats, especially when the opponent’s king is exposed.
• Comfort with sharp, tactical middlegames. You willingly enter dynamic structures and look for concrete, forcing ideas that push for material or positional gains.
• Opening versatility. You handle a wide range of openings and still find practical plans in the middlegame, which helps you fight back quickly when your opponent’s setup is unfamiliar.
• Resourcefulness in tricky or cramped positions. You don’t panic when space is limited and seek active counterplay or tactical resource ideas to turn the tables.

Key improvement areas

• Endgame conversion and simplification. In blitz you sometimes end up in tight endgames after complex exchanges. Strengthen routines for converting advantages in rook and pawn endings, and practice keeping a clear plan (e.g., pushing a passed pawn or activating the rook on the seventh rank) rather than trading into equal endings too early.
• Time management and move ordering. In several games, critical decisions came late in the clock. Build a simple pre-move or quick-check routine for critical positions (evaluate king safety, major piece activity, and tactical threats) to preserve more time for the hardest moments.
• Prophylaxis and opponent plans. In fast time controls, you can benefit from predicting your opponent’s immediate ideas a move or two ahead and choosing moves that blunt their plans rather than just reacting to them.
• Consistency of pawn structure decisions. Be mindful of creating backward or weak pawns when you force imbalances. When you’re choosing a line, validate how the pawn structure will influence your middlegame plans and endgames.

Opening performance guidance

Your openings show solid versatility and strong results across several lines, with particular strength in aggressive and flexible setups. A practical path is to consolidate 2–3 openings you enjoy most and study their typical middlegame plans, piece maneuvers, and common pawn structures. This will help you avoid getting surprised in blitz and improve your consistency.

• Consider deepening 2–3 preferred lines (for example, a solid, flexible option and one aggressive setup) so you know the standard middlegame themes and typical tactical motifs you should look for after the opening is set.
• Keep an eye on typical endgame transitions that arise from those lines, so you can plan early on how to steer toward favorable endings instead of drifting into unclear trades.

Concrete drills and practice plan

• Endgame practice: Do rook and pawn endings against a partner or a stub engine. Start with equal material and aim to promote a passed pawn with active rook play.
• Two puzzle focus: Each session, solve two tactical puzzles that revolve around back-rank themes and short tactical nets in your typical openings. This builds quick pattern recognition for blitz.
• Time management drill: Play 3+0 blitz once or twice this week. After 20 minutes, review where you spent too long on a single decision and create a short checklist (king safety, major threats, candidate moves) to speed up future decisions.
• Opening consolidation: Pick 2 openings you enjoy (one aggressive, one solid) and write a brief 6–8 point plan for the middlegame—typical piece placements, key squares, and common pawn breaks.

Sample practice game patterns you can study

To help visualize ideas from your openings, you can review short illustrative lines that focus on typical middlegame ideas. Use these as templates for your own games:

• Back-rank pressure: In a concept where rooks and queen align on the seventh rank, look for a forced back-rank or a pawn storm that collapses the defender’s structure.
• King safety with active counterplay: If your opponent’s king is exposed, seek a sequence that activates a rook or queen along the open file while creating a mating net or winning material.
• Endgame pathways after simplifications: When exchanging pieces, think about whether the resulting pawn structure supports a passed pawn or a clear rook endgame plan.

Motivational note and next steps

You have the feel for dynamic play and the resilience to fight in blitz. By tightening your endgame technique, sharpening time usage, and consolidating a couple of reliable opening plans, you’ll turn many more promising positions into wins. Keep reviewing your losses to learn the exact turning points and carry those lessons into training this week.