RealJamesGoetz

Hi RealJamesGoetz – here’s some personalised feedback based on your recent games!

What you’re already doing well ⭐

• Fighting spirit – you frequently steer the game into dynamic positions and are not afraid of material imbalances (e.g. the exchange sacrifices in your April wins).
• Piece activity – in several wins you quickly place rooks on open files (Rfe1/Rab1 in your 1-0 vs gebre2nd), which later paid off.
• End-game conversions – your Philidor win on March 22 showed good technique: you centralised the king, pushed passed pawns and kept the bishop on the long diagonal until the pawn break worked.

Key themes to improve 🔍

1. Sound opening set-ups
   • In your most recent loss vs mlkk00 you played 3…Qf6 & 8…g5 in the Ruy Lopez – both violate basic opening principles (early queen sortie, weakening dark squares).
   • Aim for simple, book-approved moves: 3…a6 (Morphy Defence) or 3…Nf6 (Berlin) followed by …Be7, …O-O.
   Action: Build a “core” repertoire with 7-10 moves per line that respects development & king safety. 15-20 minutes of opening review a day is enough at this stage.
2. King safety over pawn grabs
   • Loss vs JVerria: after 5…Qxg5 you went pawn hunting, leaving the king in the centre and never recovered.
   • Rule of thumb: if your king is still in the centre, ask “Can I castle first?” before launching queenside pawn storms or queen raids.
3. Tactic filtering & calculation depth
   • In the April 11 game you allowed 26.Rxa6 Qxh2+ 27.Kxh2 when the back-rank collapses; one extra half-move of calculation would reveal 27…Nb6 fails after 28.Bxb6 Rd7 29.Qa8#.
   Action: 10 daily puzzles at your rating + a weekly Puzzle Rush session will sharpen danger recognition.
4. Choosing practical defences vs 1.d4
   • Games vs Gebre2nd show you scoring with …Nf6/…d5 systems, but the middlegames get murky when you mix ideas from the King’s Indian and Queen’s Gambit.
   • Pick one coherent plan (e.g. Colle killers: 1…d5 & …Bf5/…e6) and stick to it so your plans become automatic.

Concrete training plan 🗺️

Illustrative moment

Below is the critical sequence from your loss to mlkk00. Look at how quickly White’s pieces flood the dark squares once your queen leaves the kingside.

Try setting this up on a board and ask “What was my alternative on move 24 or 26 to avoid mate?”

Your stats at a glance

Daily peak rating: 1317 (2022-10-30)

When do you win the most?

Next milestone 🎯

With consistent tactics practice and a tighter opening repertoire, reaching 1200-1250 daily should be well within reach over the next couple of months.

Keep enjoying the journey, keep the games coming, and remember: safe king + active pieces usually beats speculative pawn grabs. Good luck!