Gerardo González

Quick summary

Nice cluster of energetic blitz games — you show a real flair for tactical play, creating passed pawns and converting them in complex endgames. Your recent wins demonstrate good piece activity and willingness to trade into a winning pawn race. The losses were short tactical finishes that point to recurring practical areas to tidy up. Below are concrete, practical steps to keep the good stuff and fix what cost you games.

What you did well (keep doing these)

• Creating and marching passed pawns — you turned pawn advantages into promotions. That patience and conversion instinct is a big strength.
• Active piece play — you make your pieces work together (rook lifts, queenside/king-side swings), especially in sharp middlegames.
• Sharp attacking sense — you see opportunities to open the opponent’s king (example: sacrificing on g6 to open lines and follow up with queen/rook pressure).
• Endgame technique under pressure — when the game simplified into a pawn race or queen/rook endgame you usually found the right continuation to promote.
• Opening variety — you have a healthy repertoire (for example Caro-Kann Defense and French Defense appear often) and understand resulting pawn structures.

Main weaknesses to fix

• Tactical oversights in time trouble — a few losses came from a sudden tactic or mating pattern (e.g., a decisive knight fork/checkmate). In blitz this often happens when the clock is low.
• Missing simple defensive resources — sometimes you don’t check “are there checks/captures/threats” before moving. That allows the opponent one decisive forcing sequence.
• Speed vs accuracy balance — you often play well when you pause and calculate, but in faster phases you revert to intuition-only and that invites tactics.
• Back-rank and mating nets — a couple of games ended because the opposing queen/knight infiltrated near your king. Keep an eye on flight squares and loose pawns around the king.

Concrete drills and practice plan (weekly)

• Solve 15–20 tactical puzzles per day focusing on forks, pins, discovered attacks and mating patterns — prioritize pattern recognition over raw speed.
• Endgame routine: 15 minutes daily on pawn races and queen vs pawn conversion (practice promoting with outside passed pawns). Run 5 exercises converting a passed pawn with the king supporting it.
• Blitz habit drill: play 5 games at 5|0 where you force yourself to stop and check for checks/captures/threats for 2 extra seconds on every critical move (train the habit of the “three-question safety check”).
• Opening consolidation: pick your top two openings (for example Caro-Kann Defense and your favorite Sicilian line) and review 4 typical plans and 3 pitfalls each. Learn one clean plan for the common pawn structures so you don’t rely on over-the-board guesswork.

Simple tactical checklist (use this in blitz)

• Before you move: look for checks, captures, and threats (3-second rule).
• If your king has limited luft or pieces are pinned, don’t trade pieces blindly — check opponent’s tactical shots first.
• When ahead in material: avoid risky tactics when your king is exposed; trade into a simpler endgame if safe.
• When under attack: force lines when possible (give checks, trade queens) to reduce the opponent’s initiative.

Quick openings advice

• If you play the Caro-Kann Defense often, memorize two typical plans for the pawn structures that appear — one that aims for piece activity and one that trades into a safe endgame.
• Against early king-side attacking setups, prioritize consolidation: one tempo to secure a flight square or trade off the attacking knight often kills the attack.
• In openings where you push pawns to create passed pawns, always ask “can I support this pawn with my king/rook?” — many wins came from support, many losses from premature pawn races.

Game review focus — what to study in each loss

• Step 1: Reconstruct the moment before the tactic — what candidate moves did you have? Could any move have prevented the tactic?
• Step 2: Find the decisive forcing line the opponent used; practice spotting that pattern on puzzles or similar master games.
• Step 3: If the loss happened while low on time, add a time-management exercise: play with increment or simulate endgame time pressure to practice calm calculation.
• Example opponent references: review the game where you were mated by a knight fork — replay it and tag the exact move you missed. You can use %3Cteyovari_1%3E and %3Csceemerr%3E as placeholders for those games in your review list.

Next-game checklist (pin to your screen)

• Three-second safety check each move (checks, captures, threats).
• If the position simplifies into a pawn race or queen/rook endgame, pause and calculate pawn promotions; if you’re favored, trade pieces to reduce counterplay.
• Avoid risky premoves unless totally safe — blitz games are won by the player who avoids the one big oversight.
• If ahead in material, simplify; if behind, look for forcing complications.

Small goals for the month

• Cut tactical blunders by half in blitz (track over next 50 games).
• Add a 1-hour weekly session of slow (15+10) games to deepen your endgame and calculation.
• Solidify two opening systems so you reach playable middlegames without guesswork.

Tools & resources (quick)

• Daily tactics trainer — focus on forks/pins/discovered checks.
• Endgame tablebase drills for pawn vs pawn races; practice queen/pawn vs queen conversions.
• Review one recent win and one recent loss per day — annotate why the winning plan worked and where the loss started to tilt.
• Opening study: make two short lines (3–4 moves each) with clear plans; memorize plans, not just moves.

To revisit one of your recent wins visually, add a short replay of the decisive phase in your review session (promotions and mate sequence are excellent training material).

Final note

Your recent play shows clear upward momentum — keep the attacking instincts and convert them into reliable technique by tightening tactics and time management. Small daily habits (15–20 puzzles and one focused endgame practice) will pay big dividends in blitz. If you want, send one specific loss and I’ll annotate the critical position and give the exact moves and reasoning to improve it.