Ruslan Musalov IM

Ruslan, here’s a personalised performance review

1. What you already do very well

• Opening bravery – You willingly enter sharp gambits such as the King’s Gambit and Smith-Morra. In your last win you converted the initiative smoothly once material returned to balance. Keep this energetic style; it fits you.
• Piece activity over material – In several games you sacrificed pawns (17.cxd5 in the King’s Gambit, 24.Bxb7 vs Muradik2010) to seize the centre or open files. Your calculation is good enough to justify these decisions.
• Pressure management with Black – Your victories in the Berlin and Scotch showed that you can soak up an opponent’s attack and then counter-punch. The move …h5 followed by …g4 in the Berlin win is a nice thematic break.

2. Recurring pain-points

• Endgame technique & clock handling
  • Four of your last six defeats were on time in (mostly won) endgames.
  • You often play the critical middlegame moves quickly, then spend valuable seconds in won endgames (e.g. the Caro-Kann loss on move 60).
  Training drill: play “rook-and-pawn” and “queen-vs-pawns” endgame bots at 30-second increment to automate the winning techniques.
  
• King safety after early queen trades
  • In the Nimzo-Larsen loss you swapped queens on move 6 and soon wandered into Bc4#. A similar pattern appeared in the Center Game timeout.
  • When the queens leave, bring the king to c6/c7 or e7 behind a pawn shield before loosening the structure.
  Mini-habit: after every queen trade ask “Where is my king’s final home square?”
• Handling quiet flank systems
  • The English Symmetrical and Nimzo-Larsen games show some uncertainty. You spent time searching for plans and allowed the opponent to expand on the wings.
  Study plan: Add a compact anti-English setup (…e6, …d5, …c5) and memorise the first 8 moves. That will save clock and nerves.

3. Opening menu – keep & polish

• As White: Continue with e4 + gambits, but prepare a calmer backup (Italian or Ruy) for match situations where you want lower risk.
• As Black vs 1.e4: Your …e5 repertoire is sound; deepen your understanding of typical endgames from the Berlin/Improved Steinitz you already play.
• As Black vs 1.c4/1.Nf3/1.b3: adopt the same core centre (…d5 → …c6/…e6) so you aren’t “learning a new opening” each game.

4. Tactical warm-up theme for the week

Work on double-attack patterns involving …Nd5/c3 forks – they occur in your Morra and Berlin structures. Ten minutes of puzzle rush before sessions is enough.

5. Model game to revisit

Annotate why …g5 and …g4 were possible and how you maintained the bind afterwards.

6. Tracking progress

Monitor when you win and lose to spot fatigue patterns:

Current personal bests: Blitz 2797 (2019-07-09) | Rapid 2399 (2021-05-26)

7. Next-step checklist

1. Finish 20 rook-and-pawn endgame drills by Sunday.
2. Create a 15-move anti-English file and play five games to test it.
3. Review each timeout loss; add two time-saving heuristics to your routine (example: pre-move recaptures in forced lines).

Stay ambitious, pace your clock, and enjoy the grind. See you over the board!