Michael Mccullough

Hi Michael!

You have an energetic, initiative–oriented style that regularly produces tactical fireworks and picturesque checkmates. Your recent wins with 14.Qxc8# and the rook-battery finish against jvincerrim show you are never afraid to calculate sharp lines.

What you’re doing well

• Opening consistency. As Black you trust the French Defence; as White you nearly always begin 1.e4 and aim for open positions. Sticking to a compact repertoire speeds improvement.
• Tactical alertness. Double attacks such as 31…Rxf2+ (vs DBabylon) or 11…Nf4 (vs WasteManagement37) demonstrate good pattern recognition.
• Practical fighting spirit. You are comfortable sacrificing material for activity and rarely agree to draws in messy positions.

Main growth areas

1. King safety & premature queen raids.
   In several losses the queen went pawn-hunting while your own monarch remained in the centre (e.g. 7…Qxd4? vs enderschaos). Follow the basic opening checklist: develop, castle, then calculate raids.
2. Calculation depth—“one more move.”
   You often spot the first tactic but miss the refutation. The diagram below shows a decisive fork you overlooked:
   
   
3. End-game conversion.
   Games against giovan05 and smaisal reached roughly equal late-middlegames, yet collapsed after pawns were left en-prise or rooks became passive. Basic rook-ending technique will save many half-points.
4. Clock management.
   More than half of your live losses feature <30 seconds on your clock while the opponent still had minutes. Try a slightly slower time-control once per session to break the blitz-reflex habit.

Concrete training plan

• Daily tactics routine: 20–30 themed puzzles (forks, pins, & mating nets). Focus on full-line calculation until the position is quiet.
• Model games: Annotate one classical French Defence every weekend (start with Botvinnik–Portisch 1968). Identify how Black completes development and strikes back in the centre.
• Post-game checklist: After each session, answer: “Did I castle before move 10?” – “Did I leave pieces en-prise?” – “Did I consider all checks & captures for both sides?” Logging the answers for 20 games will reveal patterns quickly.

Quick reference

• Peak Rapid rating: 1457 (2024-02-12)
• Glossary booster: review the idea of the zwischenzug—many of your missed tactics are hidden intermediate moves.
• When you feel stuck, browse performance by day:

Next steps

Schedule two 15 + 10 rapid games this week and apply the calmer, king-safety-first approach. Send me the PGNs and we’ll measure progress. Keep the pieces active, trust your calculation, and always look one more move deeper!