Coach Chesswick
Hi Mauro.gg, here is your personalised coaching report!
Quick overview
• Current peak rapid rating: 825 (2023-02-17)
• Activity snapshots:
What you already do well
- Solid opening repertoire as White. You regularly reach comfortable positions in the London/Zukertort setup (1 d4 Bf4). In your most-recent win you punished jessiepinkman117 with the thematic Bxh6 sacrifice after first securing the centre – excellent pattern recognition!
- Tactical alertness. In several wins you spotted forks and discovered attacks (e.g. 14.Ne5! against stefan9220). Keep cultivating this eye for tactics – it is your biggest scoring weapon right now.
- Playing for the initiative. You often castle quickly and place your pieces on active squares (rooks on open files, queen on g- or h-lines). That mindset will serve you well as you climb.
Main growth areas
- Time management. Four of the last six losses were “game abandoned” or “lost on time” positions that were still playable. Try the “10-second glance” rule: make your candidate move, then spend a final 10 s checking opponent replies before playing it – this prevents deep think-holes.
- King safety with the Caro-Kann. In the loss to rpurple you entered the Advance line but delayed a vital …c5 break and pushed …g6 too early, giving White free kingside play. Study the main plan: …c5, …Nc6, …Qb6 followed by castling before pawn moves in front of your king.
- Pawn-storm discipline. Repeated early g- and h-pawn thrusts (vs venu2204 and hmuz-1) left dark-square holes around your king. Ask “Will this pawn be defended two moves later?” before pushing a wing pawn.
- Calculation depth. Many blunders came one move after winning material (e.g. 19…Qxf4? overlooking 20.Nxf8 in the rpurple game). Adopt a strict blunder-check routine: after every capture, force yourself to look one forcing line deeper than feels comfortable.
Targeted exercises for the week
- Play five 15 + 10 games focusing only on the Caro-Kann. After each game, compare your moves with a master game in the same line for the first 12 moves.
- Solve 25 tactics per day filtered for motifs “double attack” and “back-rank”. Use spaced repetition to revisit missed puzzles.
- Analyse and annotate the critical moment of the following PGN; write down why Bxh6 works.
Next milestone
With sharper calculation and tidier kingside structures you are on track to break the 900 rapid barrier within the next 30 games. Stay disciplined, review every loss, and celebrate small improvements—rating points will follow.
Good luck, and see you at the board!