Coach Chesswick
Performance Snapshot
Current blitz trend: steadily above 2000 with a personal best of 1945 (2023-12-21).
Win-rate patterns:
What you already do very well
- Consistent opening repertoire. As Black you confidently steer games into French-type structures (
…e6 …d5) and as White you favour 1.e4 with early d3 setups. This clarity saves you the opening “guess work”. - Tactical alertness under pressure. Several recent victories (e.g. vs. ropan03, move 38…Qc1#) show you can spot mating nets when the position opens.
- Conversion of winning attacks. Notice how against arnster31 you kept pieces near the enemy king and finished with 22.Nxf7# – a model attack on weakened dark squares.
Key areas to focus on next
-
Clock management.
Five of your last six losses were on time, often from equal or better positions (see loss vs. astrokk7). Try:- Adopting a minimum move pace (e.g. never let the clock drop below 20 s in the first 15 moves).
- Using the opponent’s think-time to pre-identify candidate moves – especially in familiar French structures.
- Practising 3-minute games with a 2-second increment to drill faster decision cycles.
-
Queenside pawn breaks in the French.
In both wins and losses you allowed the typical …c5 or …b5 push, but sometimes mishandled the tension. Load a study board and replay the critical sequence from your last loss (moves 31-37 vs. crocian):
Focus on timing the break and the concept of prophylaxis – ask “what is my opponent’s next pawn lever and how do I stop or out-prepare it?” -
Endgame conversion technique.
Games vs. GMinsight reached winnable endings but you flagged. Two concrete drills:- Play rook-and-pawn endgames vs. an engine at “easy” and “medium” with only 30 s per side – aim for quick winning plans (Lucena, Philidor).
- Review endings where you still had queens (e.g. vs. gyrohakim, move 26 onwards). Ask: “Is a queen trade into a won rook endgame faster for me?”
Opening fine-tuning ideas
| Colour | Current choice | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| White | d3/King’s Indian Attack structures | Add the sharper 3.d4 against the Sicilian (Open lines) to diversify & practice central pawn breaks. |
| Black | French (…e6 …d5) & occasional Pirc/Modern | Prepare a secondary reply to 1.d4 (e.g. the solid Queen’s Gambit Declined which you already touched in the D50 win). This keeps opponents guessing and deepens your understanding of pawn structure play. |
Action plan for the coming week
- Play 20 blitz games with a strict “move every 5 seconds” rule to break the time-trouble habit.
- Annotate one win and one loss daily; focus on why a decision was made, not just engine scores.
- Solve 20 mixed tactics on “defensive motifs” (pin-breaking, zwischenzug) to complement your current attacking flair.
Encouragement
Your tactical eye and intuitive feel for initiative already place you above the majority of club players. Marry that skill with better time use and a deeper grasp of key structural plans, and pushing past 2200 blitz is realistic in the next few months. Keep the momentum going!