Anna Zhurova WFM

Hi Anna, here is your personalized post-match report!

1. What you are already doing well

• Opening versatility. In the sample of games you play 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.c4 and even 1.b3. This keeps opponents guessing and often steers the game into positions you know better than they do.
• Early king safety. You invariably castle within the first 10 moves, even in the French, Philidor and Pirc structures. This habit prevents many cheap shots.
• Tactical alertness. Wins against players such as lizde8 show accurate calculation of forcing lines. Moves like 17.Rxc7!! in your English victory exploit alignment tactics on the c-file.
• Conversion when ahead. When you obtain a material edge you usually finish the game quickly, rarely letting it drift into a long technical ending.

2. Repeated trouble-spots

• Endgame stamina. Your loss to Radoslav Genov reached move 73 and you were still fighting, but the collapse started once queens were off and pawn play mattered more than piece activity. Practical takeaway: review basic king-and-pawn vs king endings and rook activity in side-pawn scenarios.
• Pawn over-extension in the Closed Sicilian family. In the game versus Heritiana Andrianiaina the pawn phalanx f4-e4-c3 left too many holes (d4, e5, g4) and Black’s knights took over. • Consider delaying f4 until your king is off the long diagonal. • Study typical plans from the model game Fischer–Kavalek 1970.
• Handling of queenless middlegames. After 5.Qxd8+ in the Pirc you voluntarily entered a queen trade that gave White a clear plan of squeezing your king in the centre. If an early queen swap is unavoidable, activate rooks immediately (…Rd8, …Be6, …f6) instead of the slower …a6, …b5 plan.
• Clock management under 3 minutes. Three of your recent losses were flagged positions that were objectively winning or drawable. Right now you spend ~55 % of your time on the first 15 moves. Try the “10-second rule”: allocate a hard cap of 10 seconds per non-forcing move until you are below 1:00 on the clock.

3. Opening snapshot

• With White your top three choices are the English (32 %), Nimzo-Larsen (18 %) and Anti-Sicilians (15 %).
• With Black you favour the Pirc/Modern and Philidor against 1.e4, and flexible setups (…d6/…g6) versus 1.d4.

4. Concrete example to study

Replay your crisp miniature against Masterian7 and ask yourself where Black created imbalances without risk.

5. Training plan for the next two weeks

1. Day 1-3 – Tactical warm-up. 20 puzzles/day, theme “double attack” & “back-rank”. Goal: solve each in <45 s.
2. Day 4-7 – Endgame refresh. Drill “rook vs rook + pawn” and “king + pawn vs king”. Spend 30 min daily.
3. Day 8-10 – Opening focus. Build a light Pirc file that avoids 5.Qxd8+ by choosing 4…c6 (or …exd4) lines.
4. Day 11-14 – Practical blitz sets. Five 3|2 games each day, forcing yourself to be under 1:30 after move 20.

6. Motivation corner

Your current 2545 (2023-07-29) demonstrates that you are already performing at an advanced level. Minor tweaks in endgame confidence and time handling can easily convert into +50 rating points.

Stay curious, keep the pieces active, and enjoy the grind. See you at the board, Anna!