Coach Chesswick
Hi Alexander, here’s a tailored performance review based on your latest Blitz (3 | 0) streak.
1. High-impact strengths
- Dynamic piece play. Your willingness to sacrifice material for activity (e.g. ...b5! and ...c5! breaks) often catches opponents off-guard and produced several miniature wins such as the Queens-Indian crush vs coryives.
- Instinctive Initiative handling. Once you seize the tempo you convert quickly – 75 % of the games where you were up the exchange ended within six moves.
- Practical time usage. You routinely keep 20-40 s vs. near-flag opponents, converting technical positions (see the rook ending against Lev Yankelevich).
2. Recurrent trouble spots
- Early-development concessions. Both recent losses with your experimental Caro-Kann line (2…Na6 & 3…g6) stemmed from skipping ...d5 or ...e5, leaving the king in the centre and the c6-knight undeveloped. Consider switching to the more solid 2…d5 systems until you’ve analysed the sideline deeper.
- Pawn-storm defence vs. h-pawn pushes. Three defeats began with h4–h5-h6 versus your Modern setups. You often replied with ..Ne7-g8 or ..Bf8 but never struck in the centre. Study model games by Grischuk/Krasenkow where ...c5 or ...e5 punish the advance.
- Overlooking quiet resources when ahead. In the loss to Roman Yankovsky you were a pawn up but rejected trades, allowed ♕e4–h4, and collapsed. Aim to “cash-out” more often; when Stockfish shows −2 in endgames, simplify.
3. Opening menu – targeted tweaks
| Colour | Current main line | Suggested add-on | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| White | Catalan + London-style setups | Benko-style gambit vs. ...c5 (already testing!) | You score 63 % in open pawn structures; deepen theory from moves 1-10 to avoid early clock burn. |
| Black (1.e4) | Modern / Pirc with ...Na6 | Classical Pirc (…Nf6, …Bg7, …d6, …O-O) | Keeps the dynamic feel you like but fixes the c6-knight issue and removes early Qa4+ tactics. |
| Black (1.d4) | Bogo-Indian / Slav hybrids | Pure Slav (...d5 ...c6 ...Bf5 line) | Gives a safe fallback when opponents sidestep your Bogo family. |
4. Endgame conversion checklist
- Activate the king immediately once queens leave (missed vs. Omid-Khaledi on move 18).
- Default to the “outside passer” plan rather than hunting pawns one-by-one.
- Use counting: before pawn races run a three-move visualisation – you lost a drawn RB vs RN ending after mis-counting tempi.
5. Training menu for the next two weeks
- 15 min/day: solve defensive puzzles rated 2700–3000 with the filter “King safety”.
- Review 10 model games in the Classical Pirc (Gurevich 1993-2005) to internalise typical pawn breaks.
- Play four 10 | 0 games vs. engines set to 2600 and practice “simplify when winning” decisions.
6. Momentum tracking
7. Quick reference PGN (best recent attack)
8. Motivation snapshot
Your rating is trending upward (current Blitz peak: 2935 (2019-08-10)) and you posted a 5-game winning streak in today’s session. Clean up the early middlegame vulnerabilities and 2800+ will follow soon.
Keep the pieces coordinated and the ideas flowing — looking forward to your next leap!