Anastasia Vovk WGM

Hi Anastasia, great to see your steady progress!

Your current strength is clear: you regularly beat 1800-2000 opponents and your historical best of proves you already play at an advanced level. Below is a summary of what is working well and a few concrete ideas to push you toward the next milestone.

What you’re already doing well

• Reliable openings – with Black you use the Caro-Kann (B17) effectively (13…Rxd4!! in your win vs MykhailoM62 shows good tactical alertness). As White you switch between Ruy López, Alapin and French-Tarrasch lines, keeping opponents guessing.
• Active piece play – you rarely leave pieces undeveloped; in several wins you mobilised rooks on open files very fast. The conversion in the endgame against Jio85 was textbook.
• Tactical vision – you often spot intermediate moves (zwischenzug) and forks, e.g. the Nd6-e8-c7 manoeuvre that netted material against Jenia84.

Key themes to improve

1. King Safety & Counter-punching

All three recent losses start from positions where your king is reasonably safe, yet you allow your opponent to seize the initiative on one tempo:

• Ask yourself: “If my opponent gets one free move, what is the worst that could happen?” – this habit alone prevents premature pawn grabs such as 20.Qxa5? in your French-Tarrasch loss.
• Drill: play training games where you must spend one move on king safety before you are allowed to launch any pawn storm.

2. Handling Opponent’s Counter-play

Against KarlOnegin you pushed g-pawns and weakened dark squares; Black’s …Nf4! …Rxf3! refuted the plan. Before advancing flank pawns:

1. Count defenders vs. attackers on the target square.
2. Visualise the first forcing reply of the opponent (checks, captures, threats).

Practical exercise: take 10 random master games in the Alapin and French structures, stop at move 15 and predict both sides’ plans.

3. Clock Management

Two games were lost on time and several wins came after the opponent flagged. Try the “30-second rule”: if you have spent 30 s and still don’t see anything concrete, make the best safety-first move. Blitz puzzles and “go/no-go” calculation drills will help you trust your intuition under 20 s.

4. Opening Fine-tuning

• Caro-Kann (Black): study the end-game-heavy Nd2 / Advance lines. Your current Karpov setup is solid, but opponents below 2000 often misplay sharp alternatives  – easy rating points for you.
• Ruy López (White): in several games you exchanged Bxc6 early. Keep the bishop pair unless you gain a structural concession; against …d6 you can play 4.d3 & c3 without trading.

Suggested weekly routine

• 2× 30-minute sessions on king-safety puzzles (Lichess “Protect the King” theme).
• 1 sparring match in the Caro-Kann where you start from move 10 of the Karpov line and play both colours.
• 30 blitz tactics with a 10-second per-puzzle limit to improve fast calculation.
• Review each game with engine only after self-analysis – focus on the first ±1.5 swing.

Your performance snapshots

When and where do you score best? These charts will tell you:

Motivation

You are already playing at an expert level; ironing out just the king-safety lapses and time-trouble habits can add 100-150 rating points quickly. Keep enjoying the game and good luck on your way to 2100!