Andrew Horton IM

Quick overview

Andrew — nice run in recent bullet. Your games show confident opening choices, appetite for material grabs and active rook play. Your rating trend is nudging upward, so the fundamentals are working. Below I focus on what you’re doing well and targeted, practical improvements you can apply immediately in bullet.

What you're doing well

• Active, pragmatic opening play — you take space and create immediate targets. Stick with openings you know well: Nimzo-Larsen Attack, English Opening: Agincourt Defense and English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense show strong win rates in your repertoire data.
• Tactical sharpness — you spot captures and combinations quickly. A short opening clip from your games:
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• Good use of king activity and passed pawns — in several wins you convert passed pawns and use the king actively in the endgame instead of hiding it.
• Practical time-pressure instincts — you turn opponents’ time trouble into wins. That’s a valuable bullet skill when used carefully.

Biggest areas to improve (high impact for bullet)

• Time management: several games ended on time. In bullet that’s a double-edged sword — you win when opponents flag, but you also lose when you get into long thinks. Fix: adopt a clear time policy for the last 20–30 seconds (see drills below).
• Converting material advantage faster: you often win material but sometimes allow counterplay that prolongs the game and invites time trouble. When up material, simplify: trade pieces, push an outside passed pawn, remove checks and tactical targets.
• Watch for tactical counterblows: knight forks and back-rank weaknesses showed up in your loss. After grabbing material, check for immediate forks, pins, and checks against your king before making a follow-up move.
• Pre-move hygiene: pre-moving in messy positions costs you material. Use pre-moves in quiet pawn moves or forced recaptures only.
• Endgame technique under the clock: practice basic conversions (rook+king vs rook, king+pawn) so you can execute them instinctively with low time.

Concrete, short drills (daily 20–40 minutes)

• 10–15 minutes tactics practice (forks, skewers, pins). Focus on common motifs and speed—do the same motif repeatedly until recognition is instant.
• 8–10 minutes endgame drills: king+pawn vs king, opposition, simple rook endgames. Time yourself to simulate bullet pressure.
• 10-minute controlled bullet set: play 10 games of 3+2 (or 1+1) and enforce a rule: when under 15 seconds, simplify where reasonable. This builds the habit of simplifying rather than calculating indefinitely.
• Daily checklist before each game: king safety, hanging/undefended pieces, and opponent mating threats. If any are present, avoid risky pre-moves.

Opening & pre-game checklist

• Prioritize lines with high practical win rates from your data: Nimzo-Larsen Attack, English Opening: Agincourt Defense, English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense.
• For each main line, memorize 2 typical middlegame plans (pawn breaks, outposts, where to place rooks). In bullet, plans beat long calculations.
• Decide your “when up material” policy before the game: trade and simplify or keep tension to flag. When in doubt, favor trades if you’re low on time.

Practical next 7-day plan

• Day 1–3: 15m tactics + 10m endgame + 10x 3+2 games (focus: minimal pre-moves in sharp positions).
• Day 4–5: Study one opening deeply (pick your top win-rate one). Learn two model games and two concrete middlegame plans per side.
• Day 6–7: Play 20 bullet games with the rule: under 15s, simplify immediately. Review two losses and two wins and annotate one key error from each (5–10 minutes).

Notes from the PGNs (specific takeaways)

• Early queen trades and castling long worked well in your wins — they opened files for rooks and created targets. Keep exploiting these patterns when available.
• Capturing an exchange or grabbing h8 (material) is excellent when your king remains safe. After each material grab ask: "Are there immediate checks or forks?" If yes, neutralize them with a trade or a safe king move.
• In the loss where you grabbed a rook/pawn earlier, the opponent later found tactical counters. After winning material, mark weak squares (f2/f7/back rank) and eliminate attackers or trade down.
• Your strength-adjusted win rate (~0.50) plus a consistent positive slope means small process fixes will produce noticeable rating gains.

Helpful links & quick references

• Opponent for review: Ruben Gideon Köllner
• Openings to prioritize: Nimzo-Larsen Attack, English Opening: Agincourt Defense, English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense
• If you want, send 2–3 specific PGNs and I’ll annotate turning points and give move-level alternatives you can train.

Closing / final tips

You’re already doing a lot right — strong openings, active tactics, and good instincts in time scrambles. The fastest gains will come from tightening time management, practicing endgame conversion patterns, and cleaning up pre-move use. Follow the 7-day plan and we’ll review a handful of games next to extract concrete move-by-move improvements.