Utku Cengiz Acar CM

Hi Utku Cengiz Acar!

You have climbed to an impressive 2732 (2025-03-06) and are already capable of beating strong opposition such as Ishanaxade. Below is some personalised feedback based on your most recent games.

What you are already doing well

• Dynamic piece play. In your win against Ishanaxade you calmly gave up the b-pawn, then hit back with …Bc5–a3–c8 to seize the initiative. Your feel for activity is excellent.
• Central pawn breaks. Repeated …d5 in the Sicilian and …e5 in several Chess960 games show you understand when to strike in the centre.
• Conversion technique. Once you reached the rook-and-minor-piece endgame in the same game, you coordinated smoothly and forced resignation on move 54.

Your top three improvement targets

1. King safety when you castle long.
   In the loss to David Temirkanov (D07) you played 14. O-O-O without completing development. The reply 16…Nxe3 17.fxe3 Qxe3+ won a pawn, shattered your structure and cost the game.
   Action plan: before castling opposite sides, run through a quick “danger check”: pawn shields, open files, and loose squares around your king. If two factors look shaky, delay long castling.
   
   Critical excerpt:
   
   
   
2. Time management.
   Two of your last three losses (against Bao Nghia Dong and rol64s) ended on time in roughly equal positions. You often enter critical positions with under one minute, forcing you to move on hope rather than calculation.
   Action plan:
   • Adopt a “30-second rule”: if your clock is < 1:30, make the next three moves inside 10 seconds each, even if they are only solid.
   • Play occasional 5 + 3 games to practise thinking with a buffer.
3. Concrete calculation vs. intuition.
   In the Grünfeld (vs. Bao Nghia Dong) you pushed 25.Bc5? allowing …Nb3! winning material. Your strategic idea was sound, but the tactic refuted it.
   Action plan: add 10–15 minutes of daily puzzle rush or unlimited tactics, aiming for accuracy, not speed. Train to force yourself to “prove” a move before playing it.

Opening focus for the next week

• With White: tighten your 1.Nf3 / 1.d4 → c4 move-order. Study plans against early …Bg4 (Chigorin) so you don’t concede the bishop pair too easily.
• With Black: your Closed Sicilian setup scores well; add a quick line vs. 9.Bg5 systems to avoid consuming time over the board.

Training dashboard

• – spot which times of day you flag most often.
• – identify your most consistent playing days.

Mini glossary

• tempo – a single move; often critical when racing pawn storms.
• zugzwang – a position where any move worsens your game; useful to know in rook endings.

Next steps

1. Review the starred positions above over a board.
2. Play three 5 + 3 sparring games focusing only on safe king placement.
3. Finish the week with a tactics session reaching at least 85 % accuracy.

Stay disciplined with the clock, trust your calculation, and you’ll break the next rating barrier soon. Good luck!