Dan Shapiro FM

Quick summary

Nice run lately — your games show a reliable, practical style: steady opening prep, good piece activity, and a habit of converting small advantages into decisive pressure. Below I highlight the concrete things you're doing well, the recurring weaknesses to fix, and a short training plan you can apply in the next 2–6 weeks.

What you're doing well

• Reliable opening choices — you get playable middlegames most of the time (your Slav / Catalan / Scandinavian lines repeatedly reach comfortable structures). If you like the Slav, keep using it and deepen the typical plans. See Slav Defense: Bonet Gambit and Catalan Opening: Closed.
• Active piece play — you win a lot by improving piece activity (good bishop placements, rook lifts and infiltration). In your most recent win you used a rook invasion and a timely rook lift to deliver the knockout (example below).
• Converting small advantages — you don’t require a huge material advantage; you press small structural or activity edges and your opponents crack under coordination problems.
• Good time handling in rapid — you generally keep enough time to find critical moves, which is a strong practical skill.

Recurring weaknesses to fix

• Tactical slips in sharp sidelines — openings and gambit lines (some Diemer / Alapin games) produce sharp, tactical positions where you sometimes miscalculate. Prioritize short tactical drills focused on forks, pins and discovered attacks.
• Endgame technique — when games simplify to rook + pawn endgames or minor-piece endings you occasionally let activity slip away. A focused routine on basic rook endgames (Lucena, Philidor, rook vs. pawn) will pay big dividends.
• Move-order / opening nuance in lower-performing lines — some specific lines (e.g., the Alapin and a couple of gambits) show a lower conversion rate. These are either theoretical or tactical lines where remembering one or two key sidelines will save you trouble.
• Counterplay against queenside pressure and knight outposts — a few lost games show the opponent seizing an outpost or creating queenside targets. Watch for timely pawn breaks and piece exchanges that neutralize opponent outposts.

Concrete next steps (2–6 week plan)

• Daily — 15–20 minutes of tactics (mixed puzzles; emphasize forks, skewers, pins and mating nets). Use short timed sessions to simulate rapid pressure.
• Weekly — 2 annotated reviews of losses: pick the last two rapid games you lost, annotate the critical 5–10 moves (who lost the thread, why the tactic worked), then redo the line and write a short note on the root cause (calculation, opening choice, time trouble).
• Endgame micro-sessions — 2× per week, 20–30 minutes: study Lucena/Philidor, basic king and pawn races, and simple rook against pawn positions. Practice key technique until you convert those positions without engine dependency.
• Opening focus — pick 1 underperforming opening you want to keep (for example the Alapin or your chosen gambit). Study 3 typical model games and memorize 2–3 critical responses. That often fixes the majority of “surprise” losses.
• Playback + opponent check — when you win or lose, look one move deeper: would your opponent have resisted differently? Add the opponent link for reference when reviewing: dowajichess.

Short drills & study suggestions

• Tactics: 10–15 problems/day. After solving, write the tactic type (fork/pin/deflection) so you train pattern recognition.
• Endgames: 3 positions each session — one pawn endgame, one rook endgame, one minor-piece endgame. Play them out vs. engine at low depth and then practice without the engine.
• Opening reinforcement: for your best-performing setups (Slav/Catalan), build 10–12 typical middlegame plans in a short checklist (ideal pawn breaks, where to park the knight, which file to target).
• Practical: Play 5 rapid training games with the explicit goal "no blunders in the last 10 moves" — practice finishing technique and avoid premature simplifications.

Example from your most recent win

Below is the finish of your recent game where the rook lift / infiltration decided the game. Rewind to the exchange and look for the moment you could improve elsewhere (move-order or piece improvement earlier).

Viewer (tap to open):

Final notes — keep it practical

• Your trend shows steady improvement — that’s often more valuable than short-term spikes. Stick to the small routine and the gains will compound.
• If you want, send two recent losses and I’ll annotate them with one short checklist per game (tactical miss, opening gap, endgame mistake). That gives actionable fixes you can apply immediately.

Good work so far — with small, targeted drilling (tactics + rook endgames + one opening tweak) you should see clearer conversions and fewer tactical surprises in your next block of rapid games.