Mohamed Lemkhoudem

Well-played, Mohamed!

Reviewing your recent games gives a clear picture of your current chess personality:

• Favourite opening: the Scandinavian Defense (B01) with Black.
• Typical plans: early queen trade, long castling followed by a pawn storm, and a readiness to attack the enemy king.
• Peak rating so far: 858 (2024-03-23). Keep an eye on the trend here →
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What you are already doing well

1. Opening knowledge. You know the main Scandinavian set-ups and rarely blunder in the first 6–8 moves.
2. Initiative seeking. As soon as the centre is open you look for active moves (e.g. 12…O-O-O and the rook lift 17…Re3 against orkun91).
3. Confidence in tactical complications. You’re happy to sacrifice pawns for activity, a great attitude at this stage.

Key areas to improve next

1. Complete development before launching attacks.
   • In several losses (e.g. vs AviDZO and narminnn7) pieces were left on their original squares while one bishop or knight moved 3–4 times.
   • Rule of thumb: move each piece once in the opening unless there is a concrete reason not to.
2. King safety after long castling.
   • After 0-0-0 your own pawns (a-, b-, c-files) became targets. Before pushing g- and h-pawns, play a6/b6/c6 first to give your king “airbags”.
3. Tactical alertness.
   • Missed forks & pins decide most of your games. Daily 15-minute tactical drills will give the quickest rating boost.
   • Start with mate-in-2 and winning a piece themes, then move on to zwischenzug and deflection puzzles.
4. Endgame technique.
   • In the Philidor loss to Victorious99988877 the rook endgame collapsed because the king was too passive.
   • Practise “Lucena” & “Philidor” rook-pawn endings; they occur often at your time control.
5. Stay in the game!
   • All five recent defeats were recorded as “game abandoned” while the position was still playable. Even bad positions are valuable learning opportunities. Play them out.

Opening recommendations

• With Black: add the 3…Qa5 line of the Scandinavian to avoid the quiet 3…Qd8 setups that leave you slightly passive.
• With White: pick one main line (Italian or Queen’s Gambit) and stick to it for 20–30 games. Consistency > novelty at this stage.

Mini training plan (4 weeks)

Your performance by hour of day suggests concentration peaks in the evenings →

Exercise for this week

Replay the following fragment and find a safer plan for Black after 11. Ng5 (hint: complete development first):

Next milestone

Break the 900 rapid barrier. At your current improvement rate this is realistic within 2–3 months.

Good luck, play often, and enjoy the journey!