Maria Fominykh WGM

Maria, here is your personalised Blitz feedback

Quick Dashboard

• Current peak rating: 2418 (2020-04-28)
• When you win most often:
• Weekly rhythm:

1. Time-management – the #1 low-hanging fruit

Four of your last five losses (vs. Julian Estrada, Tom Decuigniere, Daniel Beletic, Cristi Machidon) ended with the clock hitting zero in playable or even promising positions. Improving this single area will convert a significant chunk of games without changing anything else.

• Adopt a strict blitz budget: ~15 seconds for the opening, ~60 seconds for the entire middlegame, keep ≥25 seconds for any ending.
• Premove the completely forced recaptures and “obvious” opening moves.
• When the position is sharp and you have <10 s, simplify or steer for perpetual rather than calculating a mate that needs 20 s you do not have.
• Add a short daily session of bullet (½-1 min) just to train split-second pattern recognition; it pays dividends in blitz.
• Study the concept of Zeitnot and rehearsed decision trees (e.g., “If equal material + extra passer → push; if opposite-coloured bishops → freeze centre,” etc.).

2. Opening choices & early middlegame

With White

• You have been entering the Queen’s Gambit Accepted line with 8.Qxd8+. It is safe, but it also sterilises winning chances and shunts you into long, technical endings—exactly where the clock is hurting you. Consider delaying the queen trade (e.g., 8.Nf3, 9.e3) or switching to 3.Nf3 lines that keep tension.
• Your Catalan game vs. Sharath Radhakrishnan was exemplary: you used pressure on the long diagonal to win a pawn and then converted cleanly. Build on that model.

With Black

• The Modern/Robatsch (1…g6) serves you well (two wins this week), but it also produced tough positions such as the loss to Tom Decuigniere. Prepare one “plug-and-play” alternative (e.g., the Caro-Kann or 1…e5) so you are not forced into unfamiliar Modern sidelines when opponents deviate early.
• Against 1.d4 you alternate between Chigorin-type set-ups and Slav/QGA ideas. Depth beats breadth in blitz—pick one main system and drill 20-move files so you can play the first ten moves almost instantly.

3. Critical middlegame patterns

Two recurring themes:

1. Loose pieces on the rim. In the loss to dosto07 the Na6-Nc4-Nd3 manoeuvre turned your own knights into targets. Anchor knights on central squares or have concrete tactics in mind.
2. Exchange-oversights in sharp centres. In the win vs. CAMPO ELIAS GUZMAN you converted because you controlled the only open file; in the loss vs. Machidon you failed to challenge Re1–e4 and allowed e4-e5 to crack your centre. When the e- or d-file is half-open, ask every move: “Who rules the file?”

4. Endgame conversion

The win versus Orest_Vovk showcased smooth rook-and-pawn technique. Replicate that by drilling:

• Lucena & Philidor rook endings (30 min per week on a trainer).
• “Two-pawns-vs-one same-flank” king & pawn endings—common after mass exchanges in your games.

5. Action plan (next 14 days)

1. Play 50 bullet games focusing only on clock discipline.
2. Create one 10-move opening file for each colour and rehearse daily.
3. Solve 25 mixed endgame puzzles (lichess/chess.com drill) targeting rook & pawn themes.
4. Review each blitz session for one missed tactic and one needless long think—nothing else. This micro-review keeps study time minimal and targeted.

Good luck, Maria. Tighten the time control screw and you should push well beyond 2400 blitz soon!