sitsonthefence

Hi sitsonthefence, here’s some constructive feedback based on your latest games!

What you are doing well

• Dynamic French Defense – Your games with Black show a healthy mix of classical setups (Exchange, Winawer-ish, Advance). You aren’t afraid to strike with …c5/…c6 at the right moment and you often out-calculate opponents in the early middlegame. A nice example is the tactical sequence
  
  
  which netted you a pawn and the bishop pair.
• Practical Endgame Technique – Wins against arianlondon8 and Kostok10 featured accurate king activity and conversion of extra material. You consistently activate the rook behind passed pawns and centralise the king – keep it up!
• Killer Instinct – When you sense the initiative you finish games quickly (e.g. 16-move win vs. Sanin98). That shows good tactical vision and confidence.

Key themes to improve

1. Time management
   Three of the last five losses (vs. goldlichking, Squark9000, and pashovsk) came in positions that were objectively defensible or even better for you, but the clock beat you. Try the 3 + 2 time control occasionally, and practise “chunking” your think-time:
   • Opening phase: play from memory / prep – 15-20 s maximum.
   • Critical middlegame decisions: allow 30-40 s, but then commit.
   • Convert with premoves when the position is clearly winning.
2. Grünfeld / Neo-Grünfeld structures
   In the loss to Lawrence White you entered a topical pawn-sac line but mis-judged the move order with 12……b5?! and 15……Qd7. Against the pawn wedge on d6 you needed 17……Re8 followed by …Bf8 and …Re6. Consider revisiting this line or switching to a more solid King’s Indian setup until you’re comfortable.
3. Holding bad positions
   The French-Tarrasch loss vs. DarkkChoupinou shows that once you fall worse you sometimes rush the counter-attack (18……e5?) instead of regrouping. Study master games where Black sits tight and waits for the extra pawn to matter.
4. Conversion technique vs. passed pawns
   Against pashovsk you allowed connected passers because the rook visited b-file squares repeatedly instead of cutting the king with 38……Kg5-h5-h4. Add 15 min of rook-and-pawn endgame drills to each study session.

Action plan for the next two weeks

Day	Focus	Resources / Drills
Mon-Wed	Neo-Grünfeld repair	Replay 5 GM games  →  annotate key plans; practise with engine sparring.
Thu-Fri	Rook endings	“Lucena & Philidor” + 20 random rook-vs-pawn positions (CT-like trainer).
Sat-Sun	Time-control discipline	Play 10 games of 3 + 2; log time spent per move; aim for <20 s avg.

Stats & Monitoring

• Current Blitz peak: 2399 (2025-04-12) (aim +50 in one month).
• Follow your improvement with
  
   and 
  .

Final encouragement

You’re already a strong tactical player with an eclectic opening repertoire. Patch up the specific weak spots above and you’ll break the next rating barrier soon. Good luck, and enjoy the journey!