Coach Chesswick
Quick summary
Nice streak — your play is sharp, aggressive and well-prepared. Your recent wins show strong attacking instincts, fast tactical calculation and reliable opening preparation (especially the Pirc Classical). The loss was a reminder to tighten up time management and avoid leaving decisive checks and passed-pawn targets. Below are concrete, mobile-friendly takeaways and a short plan to keep leveling up.
Recent game highlights
Key win (short recap):
- Opponent: Sauat Nurgaliyev
- Opening: Pirc Defense: Classical Variation — you converted a kingside breakthrough into a decisive attack.
- Final position: you finished with active queen and rook battery and forced resignation after a mating/netting sequence on the back rank.
What you're doing well
- Opening preparation — high win-rate in the Pirc Classical (74%) and consistent results across your repertoire. Keep using these lines to get fighting positions out of the opening.
- Attacking intuition — you spot kingside breaks and sacrificial ideas quickly (see your decisive queen/rook battery and pawn breaks in recent wins).
- Calculation under pressure — you find tactical sequences that win material or force resignation; your conversion from active pieces to mating threats is strong.
- Psychological play — you press opponents in practical blitz situations and often capitalize on hesitation or coordination errors.
Areas to improve (focused and actionable)
- Time management: several games show heavy time consumption late in the game. Drill with 3+2 and 5+0 mini-sessions. Train making sound, quick moves for common patterns so you avoid panic in the last minute.
- Avoid leaving king-side checks and passed pawns unchecked. In your loss to Maksym Dubnevych you allowed decisive infiltration and queening threats — practice finding defensive resources and calculating "what if" forcing moves from the defender's side.
- Endgame technique: convert advantages more smoothly. Work 10–15 minutes daily on basic rook and queen endgames and common mating nets so conversions become automatic in blitz.
- Prophylaxis and move-order: continue to watch for opponent counterplay (pawn breaks, knight outposts). A small waiting move or prophylactic pawn push often costs nothing and eliminates counters.
- Mind the tactical hanging-pieces traps: when simplifying, double-check opponent threats (forks, pins, back-rank) before exchanging pieces — add a 3-second "threat scan" before each capture in blitz.
Concrete 2-week plan
- Daily: 20 tactics puzzles (mixed), finish them under 3 minutes each. Focus on forks, pins, back-rank and mating nets.
- Every other day: 3 rapid 5+0 games practicing quicker decision-making in standard openings from your repertoire (Pirc, London, Amazon Attack).
- Twice this week: 30 minutes of endgame drills — basic queen+rook vs rook, and king+rook vs king — plus one 10-minute study of common mating patterns.
- Post-game routine: after each session, tag 2 lost games to review — identify the single root cause for each loss (time trouble, tactical oversight, opening misstep) and write one sentence fix.
Notes from your stats (use these to prioritize)
- Your overall Win/Loss/Draw record is strong (929/507/118) and your Strength Adjusted Win Rate is ~52% — that means you're already beating a lot of comparable opponents; small tweaks yield big gains.
- Openings: keep using what works — Pirc Classical is a real weapon (74% win rate). Also your Amazon Attack lines (Siberian) perform very well; reinforce those move-orders in your home prep: Amazon Attack: Siberian Attack.
- Recent rating trend is positive (1 month +10). Keep the momentum but do not over-train into fatigue — short, focused sessions are most efficient for blitz gains.
Quick checklist to use before every blitz game
- 1) Choose one opening (from your top 3) and stick to it for the session.
- 2) First 10 moves: follow your planned move-order — avoid spontaneous deviations unless you see a concrete gain.
- 3) Before each capture or forcing sequence: 3-second threat scan for opponent counterplay.
- 4) At 1 minute left: switch to practical mode — simplify when ahead and avoid risky complications when behind in time.
Resources & next steps
- Replay your recent win vs Sauat Nurgaliyev and mark the moments where you chose active piece placement — try to identify the common pattern and practice it in training games.
- Study a short mini-lesson on the Pirc Classical (15–20 minutes) to expand your typical middlegame plans — that will increase your edge from the opening.
- If you want, send two annotated games (one win, one loss) and I’ll give a line-by-line quick post-mortem focusing on exactly where to save time and simplify conversion.
Final note
You have elite-level strengths — keep the opening prep and attacking instinct, and target time trouble + endgame polish. Small, consistent habits (threat scans, short endgame drills, and focused blitz sessions) will convert your already-strong win-rate into sustained rating gains.