Rafael Urbina

Quick summary

Good session — you’re comfortable in Philidor-style structures and win messy middlegames by active piece play. Recent play shows tactical awareness but a few recurring practical leaks (knight intrusions, early queen exposure, and occasional endgame/pawn-run issues). Your short-term trend is down a bit, so small targeted fixes will stop the slide.

Keep doing this

• Stick to the Philidor ideas you know (Philidor Defense). Familiar pawn structures make many middlegame plans automatic.
• Active piece play and simplification when you get a material edge — you convert well when you trade into favorable endings.
• High volume of games. The experience you get from playing and reviewing is paying off; keep the habit of post-game review.

Main weaknesses to address (priority)

• Tactical misses around knight leaps to f4/e4 — opponents often get a decisive outpost. Practice spotting knight forks and common outpost tactics.
• Early queen moves that lose time or get forced off squares. Before moving the queen, ask “who can attack it next?”
• Endgame technique vs passed pawns — a loss showed a pawn race/promotion swing. Drill king+pawn basics and common rook/pawn endings.
• Blunder-check in time trouble: use a 3-second checklist before captures and checks (count attackers/defenders; any forks/pins?).

Short practical study plan (2 weeks)

• Daily tactics: 20 minutes focused on forks, pins, and discovered attacks. Review every mistake immediately.
• Opening tweaks: 2 sessions/week, 15 minutes each — learn one concrete plan and one tactical trap in your main Philidor lines.
• Endgames: 3×20 minutes/week on king+pawn and basic rook endgames; practice defending vs outside passed pawns.
• Weekly post-mortem: annotate 1 loss and 1 win (10–15 minutes) and note the single change you’ll make next session.

Concrete in-game rules

• Before capturing: 3-second blunder check — who recaptures, are there forks/pins?
• Before any queen move: check for knight/pawn replies that gain tempo.
• If opponent aims for f4/e4 with a knight: consider a trade or a pawn/rook move to deny the square early.
• Against time trouble: simplify when behind on clock or steer to clear plans when ahead.

Mini post-mortems (playable sequences)

Win vs diegosss9 — what to study:

• You played the queenside pawn advances and tactical exchanges well; a timely Nxe5 cleaned up the center and led to a favorable endgame. Replay the critical sequence starting with the pawn capture on a-file and the knight sacrifice on e5 to see how simplification helps conversion.

Loss vs charra07 — quick takeaway:

• After pushing queenside pawns, Black found a knight jump to f4 that created immediate tactical pressure. Preventing that knight or trading earlier would have reduced risk.

Goals for the next 4 weeks

• Stop the short-term rating decline: identify and eliminate your top 3 blunder types from the last 30 games.
• Tactics: reach +70% accuracy on daily puzzles within two weeks.
• Openings: master 2 Philidor sub-variations and 3 typical transition plans to the endgame.
• Play-review loop: 20 rapid games with focused postmortems on the 5 worst losses.

Final encouragement

Your strength-adjusted win rate (~0.50) shows you’re right on the cusp — small, consistent improvements in tactics and endgame technique will produce steady rating gains. If you want, I can create a 2-week daily schedule, a set of 30 tailored tactics based on your mistake profile, or annotated opening notes for your Philidor lines. Which do you want first?