Coach Chesswick
Overall progress and strengths
You’re showing solid adaptability in rapid play and a positive trajectory over time. Your openings reflect comfort with a variety of structures, and you tend to seize opportunities when your opponent overextends or misreads the position. This combination—flexibility plus decisive conversion when ahead—bodes well for continued growth.
- Your results span multiple timeframes, indicating a healthy, steady improvement curve in rapid chess.
- You’ve achieved positive outcomes with several different openings, demonstrating versatility and good practical understanding of different pawn structures and piece setups.
- Your adjusted win rate is strong, suggestive of reliable decision-making in practical play and good conversion of advantages when they arise.
Key areas to improve
- Time management: allocate thinking time for critical moments and avoid rushing decisions in the middlegame. A quick planning check (3–5 seconds to decide a plan) can help structure your moves more consistently.
- King safety and piece coordination: in aggressive lines, there can be a temptation to overextend. Prioritize completing development and ensuring king safety before launching complex attacks.
- Pattern recognition in tactics: strengthen your ability to spot tactical threats from your opponent and verify opponent’s candidate moves before exchanges or tactical sequences.
- Opening depth: keep enjoying variety, but consider specializing in 1–2 openings to deepen understanding of typical middlegame ideas and endgames for those lines.
Drills and practice plan
- Opening study: pick two openings to master (for example Bishop's Opening and Philidor) and learn the main middlegame themes and common pawn structures that arise.
- Endgame basics: practice king-and-pawn endings and rook endings to improve conversion of small advantages into wins.
- Tactical training: do 15–20 minutes of daily puzzles focusing on checks, captures, and common tactical motifs from your chosen openings.
- Post-game review: after each rapid game, write 2–3 bullet points on what went well and what to adjust, and track a concrete improvement each week.
Opening snapshot and ideas
- Bishop's Opening — versatile, with solid development ideas. Bishop's Opening
- Vienna Gambit, with Max Lange Defense — sharp lines; great for sharpening tactical pattern recognition. Vienna Gambit, Max Lange Defense
- Philidor Defense — solid structure that supports counterattacks; good for learning defensive planning. Philidor Defense
- Amazon Attack — aggressive, leads to dynamic middlegames; balance attack with solid defense. Amazon Attack
- Barnes Opening: Walkerling — flexible, can transpose; focus on piece activity and central control. Barnes Opening: Walkerling