Talgat Gubaydulin IM

Quick summary

Good job, Talgat — your recent play shows sharp tactical awareness and willingness to attack the king. You won a nice blitz game by creating a direct mating net with active pieces, but you also suffered a couple of losses that came from tactical oversights and king‑side weaknesses. The goal: keep the aggression that wins games, while reducing the avoidable tactical and safety mistakes that cost material or mate.

What you did well

• Active piece play and initiative: in your most recent win you pushed on the kingside, used a knight jump to g4 and combined queen + knight pressure to force decisive threats — great sense for timing an attack.
• Speed and practical decision‑making in blitz: you often turn pressure into concrete threats instead of slow maneuvering, which is the right plan in short games.
• Opening variety and results: your database shows very strong win rates in many openings (Sicilian, Amar gambit, Caro‑Kann etc.), so your opening preparation and instincts are solid.
• Resilience: you keep pressing with active plans instead of giving up when things get messy — that produces more wins than passivity.

Main areas to improve

• King safety & back‑rank/flight squares — a loss shows the queen infiltrated and delivered mate on g2. Before starting an attack, check your own king’s escape squares and remove easy mating ideas from the opponent.
• Tactical accuracy under time pressure — avoid simple hangings and misses on checks/captures. A quick scan for opponent forks, discovered checks, and queen checks before every move will reduce these losses.
• Handling defensive positions: when the opponent gets counterplay (open files, passed pawns), find a practical plan to simplify or trade down instead of forcing complex tactics that give counters.
• Opening follow‑through: the Modern (your recent win) is playable, but your overall results show the Modern line is close to 50/50 — review typical pawn breaks and piece maneuvers in that structure so your middlegame plans are automatic.
• Endgame technique in rook/pawn endings — several losses and resignations came in simplified positions where precise technique or an active rook would save/score points.

Concrete training plan (daily/weekly)

• Daily tactics — 20 minutes of mixed tactical puzzles, focused on mating nets, pins, forks and queen checks. Blitz mistakes disappear fastest this way.
• 1 longer game per day (10+5 or 15+10) — play slower for one game to practise calculation and avoid reflex errors. Review it immediately (5–10 minutes) and note one recurring error.
• Opening review — 2× per week, 20–30 minutes: study one typical Modern/Scandinavian position and the main pawn breaks/idea (typical piece setups and a few model endgames). Use the term Modern as a tag to store example games.
• Endgame drills — 2× per week, 15 minutes: basic rook endings, king + pawn races and Lucena/Ladder patterns. Convert general superiority into wins more reliably.
• Blitz habit fixes — before every move do a 3‑second “blitz checklist”: checks, captures, threats to your king, hanging pieces. This reduces tactical blunders massively.

Game‑specific notes (review these positions)

• Most recent win vs Alexander Rustemov — you converted a kingside assault by using a knight on g4 plus queen infiltration to create decisive checks. That demonstrates excellent tactical vision and piece coordination. Replay the finish:
• Loss where the opponent mated on g2 — lesson: before pushing kingside pawns or exchanging a defender, check for lateral queen/rook access to your king’s dark‑square cover. Make h‑pawn/g‑pawn moves only when you know the back‑rank is covered or your king has luft.
• Several other losses show passive rook placement and giving opponent passed‑pawn chances — when behind in space, target piece activity (rook on open file, use your king actively in endgames) rather than waiting for tactics.

Practical checklist for your next blitz session

• First 5 moves: follow your opening plan — don't “freestyle” until the position is familiar.
• Before every move do the 3‑second checklist (checks, captures, threats to king).
• When you see an attacking pattern, ask: “Is my king safe?” — if not, fix king safety before continuing the attack.
• If opponent gains an open file or outside passed pawn, prioritize activating a rook or exchanging down to a winning endgame.
• After each game: mark one tactical mistake and one positional mistake to fix next time.

Next steps & resources

• Short term: 2 weeks of the training plan above and review 10 of your blitz losses to spot recurring patterns.
• Mid term: add structured endgame training (Lucena, Philidor, basic rook endgames) — 3× per week for 20 minutes.
• Use the PGN viewer above for the win to keep the pattern of knight + queen infiltration in your tactical toolkit (Alexander Rustemov).
• If you want, send 3 more recent games (one win, one loss, one draw) and I’ll produce targeted move‑by‑move suggestions for each.

Motivational note

Your overall history shows you can reach very high levels and convert attacking chances. Small, consistent fixes — tactical drills, a 3‑second checklist, and a little endgame work — will turn the occasional avoidable loss into a win. Keep the attacking instinct, but tighten the guard behind it.