Coach Chesswick
Hi Evgenij!
First of all, congratulations on consistently keeping your Blitz level around 2845 (2020-07-10). Your recent victories – especially the clean conversion against radnovcze – show that your strategic understanding and practical end-game skills are in great shape.
Your current performance at a glance
Feel free to explore the interactive charts to spot patterns in your play:
- Activity:
- Consistency:
What you’re doing well
- Flexible opening choices. With White you alternate between the Réti/English set-ups and the Neo-Catalan, avoiding heavy theory while steering the game into middlegame structures you understand.
- Piece coordination in the middlegame. In your win vs. RADNOVCZE (A05) your 22.d4!–23.d5! pawn lever seized the initiative and fixed Black’s pieces on awkward squares.
- Clever resourcefulness in reduced material. The rook-and-pawn ending of the same game was handled model-perfectly. Moves 42-50 showed good awareness of outside passed pawns and advanced promotion techniques.
Key areas to focus on next
-
Early tactical vigilance with Black.
In the loss to mr_sm (B06) the sequence 10.Nxd5 Nxd5 11.Bxd5 Bxd4? 12.Rd1 Bxe3? let White break through on the d-file. Before grabbing on d4 you had time to castle or play …e6, keeping the position sound.
• Drill 10-minute “blunder-check” exercises: after your opponent makes an aggressive central capture, always ask “What is the forcing reply?” (Checks, Captures, Threats – the classic CCT algorithm). -
Exchange-sacrifice decisions in Alekhine/Modern structures.
Your games show several …Bxf3 / …Bxd4 ideas. They often work, but in the rapid loss to Mr_SM the exchange on d4 opened critical files for White’s rooks.
• Add a short study routine: load 5-10 highlighted positions into a “train-my-pattern” file and practise on a board without engine aid. Ask yourself whether the structural payoff compensates for material. -
Time management.
Two of the recent defeats were decided by the clock rather than the board. Notice how your average remaining time plummets once you drop below 90 seconds.
• Adopt a “Bronstein Buffer”: promise yourself to have ≥ 40 s before move 20 and ≥ 15 s before move 30. If you fall behind, simplify immediately.
• Practise increment end-games (3 + 2 vs. Table-base) to get comfortable converting with only the two-second bonus.
Micro-study corner
Replay the critical fragment that flipped the evaluation in your last loss.
Train to spot that after 12.Rd1! the discovered pin on the d-file makes further captures poisonous.
Next steps
- Review 15 games where you played …Bg4xf3 or …Bxd4; annotate whether the exchange improved your position.
- Incorporate one mainline defence against 1.e4 (e.g. the Sicilian Classical or French) to diversify beyond the Modern.
- Play two training matches (10 + 5) vs. a sparring partner starting from the diagram after 9…d5 and from 22.d4 (your win) to reinforce both sides of your recent experience.
Keep up the good work and enjoy your chess journey!