Hi Yury! 👋 Overall impression
Your recent games show a solid positional foundation, especially in daily time-controls where you can think deeply. In rapid and blitz, however, results fluctuate—often because of time pressure and the temptation to play “hope chess” tactics. Below is a structured review of strengths, growth areas, and actionable drills to sharpen your game.
What you already do well ✅
- Endgame conversion: In the Torre Attack win you calmly converted a rook+pawn ending with ...Rc8–c5–cxc5, showing good technique.
- Flexible pawn breaks: Moves such as ...f5 (vs Bugurtian_II) and ...d5 (vs dzuljazz2001) demonstrate that you look for central counterplay instead of drifting.
- Piece coordination: Many of your winning positions arise because all pieces are aimed at a single target before tactics start. Keep nurturing this habit!
Main improvement themes 🛠️
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Time management & nerves
• Three of the five listed losses were timeouts in winning or equal positions. Practise playing with an increment (5 + 3, 10 + 5) to get used to “bonus time”.
• Use a move trigger: when your clock drops below 30 % of the initial time, force yourself to move within ten seconds. Tracking tool: . -
King-side pawn safety
• Recurrent pattern: ...h6/…h5 in the Sicilian (loss vs amet756) weakened dark squares and invited Nxg6 or Qg4-h4 ideas.
• Guideline: push those pawns only when you can immediately meet g-file pressure with …g5 or …g6 under favourable circumstances. -
Handling the d5-knight in your Najdorf/Chekhover setups
• In the loss to 777ChessnoK777, 9 Nd5! caused structural problems. Study games where Black calmly plays …Nxd4 …Be6 …Rc8 rather than chasing the knight with …Nb8/…Na6. -
Over-aggressive opening choices as White
• The quick 2 fried%20liver%20attack surrogate (Qh5, Bc4, Qf3) led to a miniature loss vs B_chess_player. Replace this with solid lines you know well (e.g. Ruy Lopez or English Attack versus the Sicilian).
Targeted drills & study plan 📚
| Focus | Exercise | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Clock discipline | Play 10 rapid games with a personal rule: no move takes longer than 25 seconds before move 20. | 2× / week |
| Pawn-storm control | Analyse 15 GM games in the Closed Sicilian where Black keeps kingside pawns on g7-h7. Note when …h6 or …h5 is safe. | One mini-study session |
| Critical-square tactics | Custom puzzle set: positions featuring the outposts d5/f5/e6. (Use the “theme” filter and set rating 2100-2400.) | 10 puzzles / day |
| Endgame depth | Work through the rook-and-pawn chapters of Dvoretsky Endgame Manual and test yourself against tablebase positions. | 20 min / day |
Opening tweaks 🌱
- As Black vs 1 e4: Keep your Sicilian but prepare a solid fallback (e.g. the Classical 2…e6 line) for faster time-controls.
- As White vs the Berlin: In your win vs gubzy13 you handled the Rio well. Consider adding 4 d3 anti-Berlin to diversify.
Motivational snapshot 📈
Your peak ratings: Rapid , Blitz , Daily . Let’s aim to push the Rapid mark another +50 over the next two months!
Instructive moment to review 🔍
Critical swing in the loss to AMet756—after 16 Nf4 d4 17 Nxg6! you missed the resource 17…fxg6 18 Qxe6. Load it, switch on “self-analysis”, and ask: “Which defender was overloaded?”
Next check-in
Play 20 rapid games applying the above rules, tag them “#CoachReview”,
and we’ll revisit your progress. Good luck and enjoy the journey, Yury!