Coach Chesswick
Quick overview
Nice run lately — strong win rate, a clear upward rating trend, and a lot of decisive games. You convert attacking chances well and score consistently from the openings you know. A few concrete areas (opening gaps, time management, and endgame technique) will push you further.
Highlights — what you're doing well
- Strong practical results: your Win/Loss/Draw record is excellent (19–3–1) and your strength-adjusted win rate is high. Keep that confidence.
- Good attacking instincts — you find forcing continuations and mating nets. Example: review your recent mate where you finished with a decisive king attack: Review this mate game.
- Solid opening repertoire in several lines — the Ruy Lopez and Petrov's lines are working well for you. (See Ruy Lopez and Petrov's Defense).
- You convert advantages and win by different methods: mates, positional wins, and even opponents losing on time — that shows practical pressure and play that makes opponents uncomfortable.
Key areas to improve
- Cover weaker opening lines. A couple of Sicilian sub-variations are costing you: review the Four Knights / Alapin paths that have given you trouble and learn the standard plans and pawn breaks so you don’t get surprised out of the opening.
- Time management: you play well in the middlegame but sometimes approach time trouble. With rapid plus increment, stop the “all-or-nothing” thinking: spend more time on critical tactical choices and use your increment to avoid rushed tactics.
- Endgame technique and conversion: your draw shows long king-and-pawn play to a minimal material result. Practice basic pawn and rook endgames so you can squeeze wins from small advantages and avoid unnecessary simplifications to drawn material sets.
- Reduce reliance on tactical counterblows from opponents’ mistakes. You capitalize well when opponents slip — add a little prophylaxis and slow, consistent improvement to your positional play so you create your own chances more regularly.
Concrete, short-term plan (what to do next)
- Daily: 15–25 minutes of tactics puzzles (focus on calculation and candidate moves, not only pattern-matching).
- 2× per week: 30–45 minutes of focused opening work on the Sicilian lines that gave you trouble — learn typical pawn breaks and one reliable anti-system for each line.
- Weekly: annotate and review 3 of your recent games (one win, one loss, one draw). For the mate game you just played you can open the full move sequence here: .
- Endgame practice: 20 minutes, twice a week — focus on key king-and-pawn and rook endgames (Lucena, Philidor, opposition basics).
- Post-game routine: after each session, pick one key moment where you felt unsure, and spend 5–10 minutes checking candidate moves — this builds your calculation habit.
Practical tips you can use in games right away
- In the opening: trade pieces only if the resulting structure and plan are clear — avoid exchanges that relieve pressure when you have attacking prospects.
- When you see a forcing shot, ask: “What is the opponent’s best reply?” — play out the reply in your head before committing.
- Use your increment: if you have less than 3 minutes, spend 20–30 extra seconds on moves that change the game balance (captures, checks, big pawn breaks).
- In endgames, keep active king and rook placement as priority — activity often beats material when the position is simplified.
Where your results say you should focus (data-backed)
- Your recent rating jump (+126 in a month) and the positive slope show the current approach is working — prioritize consolidation (openings + endgames) rather than changing too much.
- Openings with 100% win rate (Sicilian Closed, Petrov) are great anchors — keep those as core repertoire.
- Target the two Sicilian lines with 0% win rate for short study blocks — a single hour each will reduce surprises and raise your practical score.
Want a personalised study plan?
If you’d like, I can create a 4-week study schedule based on the openings you play and the exact moments from your games to target. I can also extract 5 critical positions from your recent games and give specific moves to study — say “Yes — analyze my games” and I’ll prepare it.
Extras / quick links
- Look again at this win on time and how you converted the advantage: Review the time-win conversion.
- Study the drawn endgame and the multi-phase king maneuver: Review the long endgame draw.
- Profile for quick reference: David Perdomo.