Coach Chesswick
Hi Nicholas (“proudf”) 👋
1. Quick snapshot
- Peak blitz rating:
- Latest session: 5 wins – 5 losses (all decisive, zero draws).
- Activity pattern: see your own – you score best in the late-evening slot; consider scheduling serious games there.
2. What you already do well
- Consistent repertoire. …g6/…Bg7 Pirc-/Modern-type systems as Black and flexible queen-pawn systems as White give you familiar middlegames almost every round.
- Initiative-first mindset. You are happy to push …h5, …f5 or fling a-pawns up the board (e.g. win vs Kirill Churikov).
- Tactical awareness. Nice mating net in your most-recent win: .
3. Repeated trouble-spots
- Clock management. Three of your last five losses were on time; even in wins you often finish under 10 s.
- Loose queenside pawns. Early …b5/…b4 in the Slav/QGA or …Qa5+ in the Pirc cost you the b- and c-pawns versus Sandi Stojanovski.
- Early queen raids. Moves such as …Qa5+ or …Qb6 net a pawn but leave you behind in development; see the loss to verkhovsev.
4. Opening pointers
| Line | Keep | Tweak |
|---|---|---|
| Pirc/Modern (…g6) | …Nf6/…d6 setup ✔ | Replace early …Qa5+ with the main-line 6…c5 in the Austrian Attack. |
| Slav/QGA with White | Space-gaining a4-a5 plan ✔ | After 9.Qb3 consider 9…Nb6 instead of …Qb6 to stay safer and save time. |
5. Middlegame & endgame focus
- Drill basic rook endings (Philidor & Lucena). In the loss to ticbye you reached a drawable R+P vs R+3P but flagged.
- Work on conversion technique. In your win vs Silas-130298 34.Rb7! would have ended the game ten moves earlier.
- Add a daily 5-minute exercise on simplification – trading the opponent’s most active piece before launching pawn breaks.
6. Practical improvements
- Two-speed clock plan: keep >45 s after move 20, then trust the 1-s increment for the rest.
- Pre-game: rehearse one tabiya for 5 min – it will save much more than 5 s during the game.
- Post-game: tag each game with a single keyword (“time trouble”, “pawn grab”, …). Patterns jump out on .
7. Weekly homework
- Deep-dive the critical phase of the loss vs Sandi Stojanovski (moves 14-22): .
- Play three 10 + 5 games in the Pirc without moving the queen before castling; record the results.
- Solve 20 tactics that feature interference: interference.
Keep the fighting spirit, tighten the time-management screws, and the jump beyond 2400 will follow soon. Good luck!