Coach Chesswick
Performance Review for Morteza Mahjoob
Your Current Snapshot
- Peak blitz rating: 2500 (2018-12-17).
- Typical openings:
- White: Reti / King’s Indian Attack set-ups (1 Nf3, 2 g3) and occasional Italian (3 Bc4).
- Black: Old Benoni structures (…c5 & …e5) and Indian-Game set-ups with …g6.
- Time-control preference: mostly 3 | 0, where clock pressure is constant.
What You Do Well
- Early king safety & development. In many wins you castle by move 5 and keep pieces harmoniously placed—for example the miniature vs “MightyMove” (1 Nf3 Nf6 2 d4 g6 3 g3 …) where your coordination punished …g5.
- Piece activity over material. You don’t hesitate to sacrifice pawns for tempi (e.g. 20.Nbd6!! vs “MightyMove”) and often seize the initiative.
- Practical tactical eye. Motifs such as Nxf5, Nd6+ and rook lifts (Rf3/Ra3) recur in your victories, showing good pattern recognition.
Main Growth Areas
- Clock management. Five of the six recorded losses were on time or game abandonment while still playable. Your strength drops sharply in Zeitnot.
• Aim to keep ≥ 30 s by move 20.
• Consider 3 | 2 or 5 | 0 sessions to rehearse playing good moves fast. - Conversion technique. Even in wins you sometimes need 2-3 extra chances. Train Technical Endgames (rook + pawn, opposite-colored bishops) with a 30-second per-move drill.
- Light-square strategy in Benoni/Benko structures. Games where you allow …Bb7-e4 or White’s Bf4/Bb8 ideas show the need for prophylaxis. Review model games by Kramnik on the Benoni restraining plan.
- Secondary White repertoire. Your only recent classical-time loss started from a quiet Giuoco Pianissimo (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 …). Have two ready systems vs …e5:
• Main line Italian with d4 breaks.
• Or embrace your KIA style: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d3 g3, steering play to familiar territory.
Action Plan (4 weeks)
| Week | Focus | Exercise |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Time handling | Play 10 games 5 | 0, forcing yourself to move by 40 s. |
| 2 | Endgame conversion | 50 rook-pawn endings at 30 s/move on a trainer. |
| 3 | Benoni clean-up | Annotate 5 GM games where White plays f4 & e4 vs …c5. |
| 4 | Italian back-up | Prepare a 15-move PGN file with branching notes for 1.e4 e5. |
Illustrative Moment
The following fragment shows both your creativity and an area to tidy up (linger on move 34 when both clocks were under 15 s):
When You Play Best
Notice how your win-rate spikes during evening sessions:
And how mid-week focus is higher than week-end blitz marathons:
Keep It Up!
You already outperform most players once you reach a playable middlegame. By tightening your clock discipline and deepening one secondary opening system, crossing the 2500 blitz mark is realistic within months.
Good luck, and enjoy your chess journey!