Coach Chesswick
Hi Aliaksandra!
You’re clearly a resourceful player with a keen eye for initiative. Below is a concise, practical plan for the next few weeks of training. I’ve split it into strengths to keep nurturing and areas to sharpen, each with concrete action-items.
1. Your current strong suits
- Dynamic middlegame play. In many games you willingly steer into imbalanced pawn structures (e.g. the ...c5 break in your Petroff win vs. Vladimir Grabinsky). Once the position opens you handle tactics confidently.
- Conversion with material advantage. Your rook endings against 2000–2400 opponents are usually clean; you rarely allow counterplay when a pawn up.
- Peak form. shows your ceiling is already high, so small tweaks could yield big rating gains.
2. Priority fixes
-
Clock management (highest ROI).
Five of the last eight losses were on time while the engine still shows equality. Adopt a “0 : 30 rule”—no move should cost over 30 seconds in a 3 + 1 game until move 20. Practise this in Bullets → Blitz → Rapid ladder to build rhythm.
• Drill 30-second puzzles; hit “n” after solving to mimic playing speed.
• End every study session with a 3-minute “move-every-3-seconds” sparring game versus the bot. -
Slav & QGD structures: pawn-break timing.
Your loss to Margarita Potapova showed hesitation after 14…Ba3. Once White played 18.Bd3 you needed 18…c5! to kill their light-square bishop. Study 10 model games where Black equalises with …c5 or …e5 breaks.
• Build a mini repertoire file “QGD – break triggers” with .
• Note clock marks; aim to decide on the break before reaching 1:40. -
Handling Nd5 / Ne5 invasions.
Both Nd5 (Slav loss vs. MFBerna) and Ne5 (Dutch loss vs. starworld123) set tactical problems. Add this motif to your flash-card deck: “Remove the knight or ignore?”. For each puzzle write the candidate moves before flipping the solution.
3. Opening tune-ups (low effort, steady gain)
- Black vs. 1.d4: Keep the solid …d5–e6–c6 core, but prepare a secondary weapon (e.g. the Triangle with …c6 & e6 & f5). This adds out-of-book value without tearing down your current system.
- White repertoire: Your Petroff games show you like open positions. Consider adding the Scotch or the Italian with early d4 to reach similar pawn structures from the White side.
4. Micro-habits to implement this week
- Start every session with a two-minute visualisation drill: picture bishop routes from every square (improves board scanning).
- Play one 15 + 10 game every two days to practise thinking instead of reacting.
- After each blitz game, spend exactly five minutes annotating in plain language: “I played … because …, I missed …”. Limiting to five minutes keeps the habit sustainable.
5. Progress tracker
Keep an eye on these charts to confirm the training is working:
6. Glossary refresh
Whenever the term list grows, click to revise: prophylaxis, zwischenschach, fortress.
Good luck, Aliaksandra—your tactical flair is already there; adding steadier time usage and sharper QGD plans will push you through your next rating barrier!