Coach Chesswick
Quick summary
Nice run — your rating trend is climbing and your recent games show good tactical awareness and practical rook activity. You win cleanly when you keep pieces active and the king safe, but you still drop games from tactical oversights and counterattacks against your king. Below are focused, practical steps to turn your positive trend into steadier improvement.
What you're doing well
- You convert advantages: when you win material or open files you finish actively (see this game where you used a rook and passed pawns to decide the game: review this win).
- Good opening choices in several lines — your results versus the French Defense and Scotch Game show you understand typical plans and middlegame piece placement.
- Practical play in blitz: you find direct plans and simplify into winning endgames instead of overcomplicating positions.
Main areas to improve
- King safety and back-rank/near-back-rank tactics: some losses come after letting the opponent open files toward your king or deliver tactical checks. Review this loss to see how activity against your king decided the game: critical loss — review.
- Blitz time management (3|0 games): avoid getting into severe time trouble. When your clock is low you start missing opponent threats — prioritize quick safe moves and avoid long-forcing lines when down to seconds.
- Pawn structure and unnecessary captures: grabbing a pawn while lagging development leaves you open to counterplay. Practice choosing between grabbing material and finishing development/king safety.
- Opening depth in weaker lines: your stats show some lines (for example the French Advance variation and certain poison-pawn setups) have below-average win rates — tighten the repertoire there or learn the key plans so you don’t rely on memory-only moves.
Concrete, short-term habits (daily / weekly)
- Daily tactics: 12–25 minutes of speed puzzles focused on one motif (pins, forks, discovered attacks). That reduces the “blunder gap” in blitz.
- Weekly game review: pick 3 recent games (one clear win, one unclear win, one loss). Use the game links to review: win to analyze, win, loss. Ask: was each piece developed? Was my king safe? What tactics were missed?
- Endgame practice: 15–20 minutes twice a week on basic rook and pawn endgames and king+pawn endings (these appear often after you trade down in blitz).
- Opening focus: pick 1 problematic line (e.g., French Defense: Advance Variation or the Poisoned Pawn line you play against the London System) and study typical pawn breaks and one tactical trap per week.
Blitz-specific tips
- Keep a simple, reliable blitz repertoire. If a line gives you complicated long-term weaknesses, swap it for a safer alternative until you can study it properly.
- When ahead in material: exchange queens and head to a simple ending. In 3|0 this converts far more reliably than hunting for mate with little time.
- Use premoves only when the reply is forcing and safe. A single premove mistake in 3|0 often costs the game.
- If your clock is below ~20 seconds, transition to short-term safety moves (develop, connect rooks, avoid forcing complications) rather than calculating long variations.
Game-specific coaching notes
- Win vs aydin-tek — review this game: Excellent use of rooks on open files and quick centralizing of minor pieces. Strengthen this by training to convert when up an exchange or a pawn.
- Win vs trav1995 — clean rook & endgame win: Good recognition of simplifying into a winning rook endgame. Keep drilling standard rook endgame ideas (cutting off the king, checking distance, active rook).
- Loss vs susladmytro — critical loss — review: The turning point was opening lines toward your king and allowing tactical captures. When you see a tactic for the opponent (a rook infiltrating or a knight jump), pause and ask: "Can I safely finish development first?"
4-week improvement plan (practical)
- Week 1 — Tactics sprint and game review: 20 min/day tactics + review 3 past games (one per day).
- Week 2 — Endgames + safe blitz play: 30 min on rook/king-pawn endgames across the week; play 20 blitz games focusing on exchanging into winning endgames.
- Week 3 — Opening consolidation: pick one opening you play often (e.g., Scotch Game or French Defense) and learn top 3 typical plans and one tactical trap for opponents.
- Week 4 — Mixed practice & evaluation: combine tactics (15 min/day), 10 rapid games (5|5) to practice deeper calculation, and review missteps from blitz games.
Final encouragement
Your rating trend and strength-adjusted win rate show real progress. Keep the practical daily habits (tactics + fast game reviews), tighten the weakest opening lines, and prioritize king safety/time management in blitz. Little consistent changes will turn those fluctuations into a steady climb.
If you'd like, I can produce a tailored tactics set, a one-week practice schedule, or annotate one of the specific games move-by-move — tell me which and I’ll prepare it.