Bryon Duff

Welcome back, Bryon

You’ve played a lot more recently, and now we have some real games to work with. Your strength-adjusted win rate (~48%) says you’re basically holding your own against the opposition you’re facing — that’s a solid base to build on.

Below I’ll focus on your most recent daily games (wins and losses), what you’re doing well, and a small set of habits that will help you convert more of your good positions.

Your Recent Wins – What You’re Doing Well

You’ve had some excellent attacking games lately, especially as Black in sharp openings.

• Benoni-style attack vs ldooff – View
  • You survived the early piece grabs, kept calm, and then used your pieces actively to chase the white king across the whole board.
  • Once you were ahead, you pushed your passed pawn to queen and finished the game with a clean checkmate with your queen on c7.
• French Defense endgame vs ldooff – View
  • You handled a long middlegame very well: kept your pawns compact and slowly improved your king and rook activity.
  • Once you got the passed pawn to promotion, you stayed calm and finished off the king safely with queen and rook.
• Queen’s Gambit Declined (Marshall) win vs ldooff – View
  • Nice understanding of space: you grabbed central space with …e5 and then followed up with the pawn storm …g5–g4.
  • You converted material very cleanly once you broke through on the queenside and won White’s pieces.

Patterns I like from your wins:

• You are not afraid to keep pieces on the board and attack when the opponent’s king is exposed.
• You notice tactical chances like knight jumps into the enemy camp and rook invasions on the back rank.
• Your queen-and-rook coordination is a genuine strength in the late middlegame and endgame.

Recent Losses – The Main Leaks

A lot of your losses are not because you get outplayed slowly, but because of early tactical oversights or very quick attacks against your king. Fixing just a couple of these habits will move your results noticeably.

1. Losing very fast from known traps

• Four Knights / Scotch as Black vs ldooff – View

  As Black you played:

  1 e4 e5, 2 Nf3 Nf6, 3 Nc3 Nc6, 4 d4 Bb4, 5 a3 and then you captured on e4 with your knight.

  Issue: grabbing that central pawn with your knight while your king is still in the middle is very risky in open positions. One or two accurate attacking moves from White and your king becomes a target.

  Simple fix: in similar structures: instead of capturing with the knight, either:

  • Exchange in the center with your pawn (…exd4) and then castle, or
  • Castle with …O-O and only later think about pawn grabs.
• Fast attack against your king in Alekhine / Scandinavian structures – View

  In this game you built up a reasonable position, but then captured a rook on e7 with your queen while the enemy queen and knight were already aiming at your king. One move later you were checkmated on g2.

  Critical habit: you made a greedy queen capture in front of the enemy king without checking what forcing moves the opponent had on your king.

  Training rule: Before you capture something with your queen in the enemy camp, force yourself to ask: “What checks does my opponent have on the very next move?”

2. Allowing direct king attacks on the kingside

• King-side crush vs ldooff – View

  Here, after a good start with queenside play, you allowed White’s queen and bishop to build up around your castled king. Once your pawn cover was weakened, there was no way to stop the mating ideas.

  Most of the damage came from not asking “what is my opponent threatening?” just before you played your last couple of pawn moves.

Opening Choices – A Small, Dangerous Repertoire

Your stats show you’re playing a lot of sharp stuff:

• Amar Gambit – 55 games, win rate ~33%
• Amazon Attack, Barnes Defense, Blackburne Shilling Gambit, Elephant Gambit, Alekhine Defense…

This fits your style: you enjoy attacking, piece activity, and unusual lines. That’s a strength — but these openings also magnify tactical punishment if you miss one defender or one check.

Practical plan:

• Keep one or two “fun” gambits for when you want to play creatively.
• At the same time, add one simple, solid setup with White and one with Black, so when you feel tilted or tired, you can just rely on structure and development.

Suggestions that match your skill and style:

• As White: a simple London-style setup (d4, Nf3, Bf4, e3, c3). You already have your best win rate in the London System: Poisoned Pawn Variation.
• As Black vs 1.e4: a plain Scandinavian Defense with …Qxd5 and fast development, or a calm 1…e5 with early …Nf6, …Nc6 and castling, avoiding the really speculative pawn-grabs that your stats show are not working often enough.

Three Habits That Will Gain You Points Fast

1. The “blunder check” before every capture

Most of your worst losses come from one move where you grab a pawn or piece and walk into mate or a big tactic.

New rule for your daily games:

• Any time you are about to:
  • Move your queen forward, or
  • Capture something in the enemy camp, or
  • Move a pawn that was guarding your king
• Pause and ask:
  • “What are all my opponent’s checks if I play this?”
  • “What are all their captures near my king?”

This one mental step would have saved you in: the Alekhine game (no Qxe7) and several other quick losses.

2. Castle first, attack second

In many of your own attacking wins, your opponent keeps their king in the center while you attack. In quite a few of your losses, you do the same.

Simple checklist for the first 10 moves:

• Have I developed at least two minor pieces?
• Have I castled (or am I about to)?
• Is my queen still behind my minor pieces, not out on a solo adventure?

If the answer to any of these is “no”, don’t start pawn storms or speculative sacrifices yet. Get safe first, then strike.

3. Play your advantages slowly when you are better

In your wins vs ldooff you often had big material or positional advantages and then pushed for quick mates. You converted them, but sometimes you gave the opponent extra chances.

Instead of always going for immediate mate, try:

• Swapping queens when you are up material.
• Bringing the king to the center in the endgame.
• Improving your worst piece before starting new tactics.

This will reduce swingy games where your attack works “almost” but lets them back in.

Targeted Training Plan (Daily-Chess Friendly)

Here is a concrete plan you can follow over the next month, that fits your daily rhythm:

• In your next 10 daily games:
  • Use your solid opening choice at least half the time (London-style with White, simple Scandinavian or 1…e5 with Black).
  • Write “checks & captures?” in your notes once per game and consciously do a blunder-check just before any big capture.
• Post-game review routine (5–10 minutes):
  • For each finished game, find one move you would change if you could replay.
  • Ask: “What was I afraid of there?” or “What was I greedy for there?”
  • Use the game links above (or the site’s analysis) to confirm what the better move was.
• Pattern study:
  • Look through the final positions of your wins (games linked above) and note common mating patterns you are strong at.
  • Then look at final positions in a few quick losses (especially in Alekhine / Scotch / gambits) and label the mistake: “uncastled king”, “greedy capture”, or “ignored check”.

Big Picture

Your rating graph has ups and downs, but the games you’re playing now show a strong tactical sense and willingness to fight. The main thing holding you back is not “chess understanding” but a small number of avoidable tactical blunders early in the game.

If you:

• Do a blunder-check before captures,
• Castle before attacking, and
• Use one simpler opening setup in addition to your gambits,

your strength-adjusted win rate should start climbing above 50%, and your rating will follow over the next few months.

When you have a new batch of 10–15 games (especially with the solid openings), come back and we can dig into those specific positions in more detail.