Coach Chesswick
Quick summary
William — nice work in your recent blitz stretch. You showed good practical instincts: creating space on the flank, activating heavy pieces, and finding tactical shots when opponents left loose pieces. You also had a few slips against stronger opposition (Hikaru) where simplifications and piece exchanges reduced your counterplay. Below are concrete points to keep doing and things to fix.
Games to review (quick links)
- Win vs Sully McConnell — good tactical conversion (view game):
- Loss vs Hikaru Nakamura — instructive simplification and activity issues:
What you're doing well
- Creating space and targets — your queenside pawn pushes (b4–b5) in the win forced the opponent to create weaknesses and gave you clear targets to attack.
- Active heavy pieces — you used rooks and the queen to invade open files and ranks (the winning sequence with the rook on the fourth rank was decisive).
- Tactical awareness — you spotted and executed combinations once an opponent left material or squares undefended (you converted when the tactic presented itself).
- Practical speed — in blitz you kept the pace and avoided long, needless thinking early in the game, which is good for time management in this control.
Key areas to improve
- Choice of simplifications: Against stronger, active opponents you simplified into positions where they retain more active pieces. Before trading pieces, ask: "Who benefits from fewer pieces?" If your opponent has the more active pieces, keep tension and look for counterplay instead of simplifying immediately.
- Watch exchanges that release pressure — the exchange on c5 in the Hikaru game (you allowed Rxc5 then traded knights) reduced your ability to contest open files. Try to maintain pieces that contest opponent activity.
- Opening clarity: you often reach middlegames from lines like the Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation and some Modern/King's Indian type setups. Refresh typical plans and pawn breaks for those lines so you can spend less time deciding on plans in blitz and avoid early inaccuracies.
- Tactical follow-through: you found good tactics when opponents erred, but double-check for back-rank or infiltration threats before launching major pawn pushes — many blitz losses come from one-move tactical oversights.
Concrete training plan (next 2–4 weeks)
- Daily 10–15 minute tactic session (focus: pins, forks, discovered attacks, back-rank mates). Use mixed difficulty but emphasize speed and pattern recognition.
- Two opening refreshes per week: pick your most-played opening (I suggest reviewing the main ideas and 3 typical middlegame plans for Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation and your favorite Black replies). Learn one model game and one trap to avoid.
- One annotated blitz review per evening: pick a recent loss and write 3 things you missed and 3 alternative moves — keep it short and actionable.
- One slow training game per week (10+5 or 15|10): force deeper calculation, especially at moments you normally simplify. Practise resisting simplification when opponent is more active.
- Endgame micro-practice: spend 5–10 minutes twice a week on rook endgames and basic pawn endings — small advantages win more in blitz if you know the technique.
Tactical checklist to use during blitz
- Before trading: who gets the open file / outpost? If the opponent does, avoid the trade.
- Before pushing a flank pawn (a/b or g/h/file): check for opponent infiltration squares and back-rank weaknesses.
- Always scan for opponent tactics before making a "quiet" move — many blunders happen after an unexpected in-between move by the opponent.
- If you have less time, simplify only when you are sure the resulting position is equal or better in activity.
Next steps (quick wins)
- Run a 10–15 minute tactic session right after this — focus specifically on rook/queen battery and back-rank mates.
- Re-open the Hikaru loss and ask: what single exchange removed my counterplay? Write down the alternative and play it through slowly once.
- Before your next blitz session, review one model game in the Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation so the first 10 moves feel automatic.
Motivation & wrap-up
Your results show strong practical ability — keep sharpening pattern recognition and be more selective about exchanges. Small changes (one better exchange decision per game) will raise your conversion rate in blitz quickly. If you want, I can prepare a short annotated version of one of the two games above with 3 concrete improvements — tell me which game you want reviewed first.