Coach Chesswick
Hi Sanket Chakravarty! Here’s a personalised post-match review of your recent play.
1. Quick stats
• Current personal bests: 1848 (2015-06-05), 2667 (2024-08-13)
• Activity trends:
2. What you are doing well
- Initiative-first mindset. In the win against palvolgyip you turned a quiet Réti into a kingside initiative with 20.f4! and 22.f5!, forcing Black into concessions.
- Tactical alertness. You consistently spot forcing continuations. The sequence below is a model example of your tactical vision:
- Piece activity in semi-open positions. In several Chess960 wins you rapidly mobilised the rooks (e.g. …Rfe8, …Rxa5 followed by Re8#). Developing rooks early is a recurring strength.
3. Main improvement themes
- Clock management.
Four of your last five losses were on time in winning or equal positions. Treat the clock as an extra piece:- Aim to keep >40 % of your initial time after move 15 in 3 | 1 games.
- When you have a clear win, simplify rather than calculate fresh lines.
- Adopt a “move-pair rhythm”: spend extra time only every two moves (your move + opponent reply).
- Overshooting the attack.
In several Bird-style openings you advanced the g-pawn too quickly (e.g. 8.g5 in the loss to GM Srinath) and weakened dark squares. Pause when:“If this pawn moves, which squares do I give my opponent’s pieces?”
Train with the “king-safety checklist”: centre closed? pieces coordinated? castled? - Converting material.
You occasionally miss simple consolidating moves after gaining material. In the game vs Erdnya15, after 13…Nxd6 you were two tempi up yet entered complications you didn’t need. Convert by:- Trading one set of minor pieces immediately after winning material.
- Placing a rook behind your passed pawns – the endgame fundamental you can automate.
- End-game checklists.
In your Chess960 loss to Victor Mikhalevski you reached R + minor vs R + two minors but failed to activate the king. Use the 3-step end-game rule:- Centralise the king.
- Activate the rook behind passed pawns.
- Create zugzwang or force pawn breaks.
4. Targeted training plan (next 4 weeks)
| Week | Main focus | Typical drill | Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clock handling | Play 10 games 3 | 2 with a hard 30-second think cap per move | <15 % moves under 2 s |
| 2 | King safety & pawn storms | Annotate 20 master games with opposite-side castling | Score 80 % in post-quiz evaluations |
| 3 | Conversion technique | Practice winning-material drills on a board set +2 pawns vs 0 | Mate within 30 moves |
| 4 | End-game fundamentals | Daily 20-min session of rook-and-pawn end-games | Achieve 70 % accuracy in composed studies |
5. Key concepts to review
• zwischenzug • fork • prophylaxis • opposition
6. Motivational closing
You already display 2000-plus tactical sharpness. By tightening your time usage and applying simple end-game principles, breaking the next rating barrier is realistic within a few months. Keep the pieces active, keep the king safe, and keep the clock healthy. Every move is an opportunity – seize it!