Владимир Матвеев FM

Overview — Владимир Матвеев

Good session today. Your win vs Ali Farahat shows strong tactical vision and concrete finishing ability. The losses (notably vs el-capa) highlight recurring tactical slips in sharp, unbalanced positions and some time-pressure errors. Overall numbers and a Strength Adjusted Win Rate near 0.50 confirm you are solid — focused fixes will produce clear gains.

What you did well (from the win)

• Active piece play: you consistently improved piece placement and invaded the opponent’s position with rooks and knights.
• Converting advantages: you converted dynamic advantages into concrete mating threats rather than letting the position simplify away.
• Practical calculation under pressure: you found forcing sequences in time trouble that your opponent missed.
• Good use of passed pawns and king activity to create decisive threats.

Recurring issues to fix (from losses & draws)

• Tactical awareness in sharp structures — the Benko-style and some Sicilian lines produced tactics on the queenside/center you didn’t fully parry.
• Time management — frequent severe time scrambles leading to small blunders or missed resources.
• Coordination after captures — occasionally a capture (or trade) left a piece loose or created a tactical target (back‑rank, forks).
• Opening-specific counterplay — in dynamic openings opponents generated counterplay before your pieces were coordinated.

Concrete, actionable improvements

• Tactics daily: 15 minutes focused on motifs that hurt you today — discovered attacks, forks, and back‑rank mates. Train both recognition and short calculation.
• Opening focus: choose 1 Najdorf/Sicilian line and 1 Benko/queenside structure for the week. Learn typical pawn breaks and the one key tactic/trap in each line.
• Post-game microanalysis: after every loss, spend 3 minutes trying to find the mistake without an engine, then 3 minutes with an engine to confirm. This builds intuition quickly.
• Time drills: play a block of 10 games at 3+1 but force yourself to keep 10–15 seconds as a buffer — practice making safe, practical moves under a ticking clock.

Opening priorities (based on your stats)

• Najdorf / Sicilian: your Najdorf WinRate is lower than average — tighten critical lines and review 3–4 model middlegames to learn standard plans and counterplans.
• Keep and reinforce what works: Slav Bonet Gambit and Gruenfeld Exchange show high success — continue using those as reliable weapons in blitz.
• Benko-style positions: practise the tactical patterns that appear after queenside pawn play and trades (watch for discoveries and tactical captures on the c- and d-files).

Quick exercises (7-day plan)

• Dayly: 10–15 minutes tactics (mixed motifs), 10 minutes opening review (one line), 5 minutes endgame drill.
• Midweek: 10 games 3+1 with 2–3 minute post-mortems focused on one recurring mistake.
• Endgame practice: 5 positions of rook+king vs king, and 5 knight fork motifs during the week.

Practical mindset tips

• In time trouble switch to “safety-first”: avoid speculative captures; aim for simplifying trades when ahead or creating checks that win time.
• Use a short mental checklist before every capture: Is the piece defended? Any forks, pins, or discovered checks for opponent? Does this open a file for enemy rooks?
• Limit pre-moves in complex positions — they save seconds but lose games when tactics appear.

Next steps I recommend

• Quickly analyze the loss vs el-capa with an engine: identify the one move where the evaluation swung and drill that motif.
• Pick one Najdorf branch to study this week; add two model games to your notes and learn the typical middlegame plans, not only moves.
• Run the 7-day plan above — you should see fewer tactical losses and better conversion in blitz within a week.

Want deeper help?

• I can do a move-by-move annotated review of any one game (human-first then engine checks).
• I can prepare a 7-day targeted blitz training plan focused on your openings (Najdorf or Benko emphasis).
• I can list 6 model Najdorf games and three concrete middlegame plans you should memorize.