Coach Chesswick
Hi Miodrag!
Congratulations on maintaining a 2873 (2019-11-27) north of 2700 – proof of your strong opening preparation and tactical alertness. Below is a quick performance snapshot followed by concrete, actionable advice.
Your Activity at a Glance
• When are you at your sharpest? →
• Any “good-luck” or “bad-luck” weekdays? →
What You’re Doing Particularly Well
- Opening variety – Your repertoire ranges from the Scandinavian and Caro-Kann as Black to the French Advance and Alapin as White, making you hard to prepare for.
- Tactical alertness – Many wins feature clean calculation (e.g. the exchange sacrifices in the win vs MrTattaglia).
- Practical instincts – You willingly enter messy positions where your opponents collapse under pressure.
Recurring Issues to Tackle
- Clock management (zeitnot). One recent loss vs Gloomy_Wanderer was on time, and several wins were converted with <10 s remaining. Long forcing lines are great, but not if they leave you flagging.
- Converting advantages. In the French Advance loss vs PavlovDanila you were two pawns up (after 25.Qh3+) yet couldn’t finish because of low time and king exposure.
- King safety in early middlegame. Examples:
- Ruy Lopez vs MrTattaglia – the thrust 18.g4?! invited a counter on the dark squares.
- French Advance (Black) – 14…f5 created holes that White exploited with 20.Rxf6+.
Targeted Recommendations
- Adopt a “40-20-20-20” time split.
Use roughly 40 % of your time on moves 1-10 (opening traps), 20 % on moves 11-20 (critical middlegame decisions) and keep 40 % for the remaining game. This alone will avoid most zeitnot disasters. - Simplify won positions sooner.
In blitz, opt for the cleanest technical win rather than the flashiest. When two pieces are en-prise, choose the recapture that forces exchanges and kills counter-play. - French Advance clean-up.
A quick repertoire patch: after 3.e5 c5 4.c3, study the modern 6.Be3 & 7.Bd3 lines instead of the Na4-b5 plan. They keep the king safer and lead to simpler structures. - Scandinavian fine-tuning.
In several games you spent tempos with …Qa5–…Qd8 (or …Qd8–…Qa5). Consider 3…Qd6 lines; they avoid the queen dance and keep development smoother. - Weekly end-game sprint.
Set aside 30 minutes, twice a week, for pure rook-and-pawn endings with 15-second increment. This will raise your conversion rate when the pieces come off the board.
Illustrative Moment
The critical slip vs Gloomy_Wanderer (diagram after 38.Kc1 … Rb8): you were still objectively equal, but 39.Nd1? (trying to untangle) allowed 39…Bb5! sealing the queenside. A calmer 39.e4! would have fixed the pawns and held easily.
Full sequence for review:
Next Steps
- Pair each blitz session with 10-15 minutes of slow tactical puzzles to keep calculation crisp.
- Revisit and annotate your losses against players you face frequently – e.g. PavlovDanila. Preparing targeted ideas will boost confidence in rematches.
- Set a measurable goal: “Finish the next 50 blitz games with ≥15 s on the clock in winning positions.” Track and adjust.
You are already performing at an elite level; a few refinements in clock handling and king safety will push that rating ceiling even higher. Good luck, and keep the pressure on!