Coach Chesswick
Hi tsivs88 – Personalised Feedback
Quick snapshot
Your chess journey is moving in the right direction. Keep an eye on the metrics below and try to beat your own benchmarks each month.
- Peak Daily rating so far: 412 (2023-04-25)
What you already do well
- Playing classical structures ( …e5 vs 1.e4, and solid pawn chains as White) shows you are studying principled openings.
- You rarely hang pieces outright and you’re willing to grab loose material when it appears.
- You experiment with different set-ups (Philidor, Queen’s-Pawn with g3, etc.), which is excellent for long-term growth.
Top priorities
- Finish your games. Five of your last six losses were on time. Set a daily alarm, use the mobile app, or activate vacation time if life gets busy.
- King safety first. Castle in the opening; avoid wandering king walks like …Ke7/Ke6 in your Scotch game. Rule of thumb: develop two minor pieces, castle, only then seek tactics.
- Reduce early pawn moves such as …f6 and …g6. They created dark-square holes that allowed Ng5-f7 and Qh5+. Instead, play the simple developing sequence 1…e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 and castle.
- Adopt one clean line vs each first move:
- Vs 1.e4: Two Knights/Italian (…e5 Nc6 Nf6).
- Vs 1.d4: Queen’s Gambit Declined (…d5 e6 Nf6 Be7 O-O).
- 10 min of tactics a day. At sub-800 level, games are decided by one-move blunders. Pattern work will lift your rating fastest.
Illustrative moment
Here is the critical fragment where king safety slipped away:
Instead of 5…f6?! simply developing with Nf6 and castling would have given you a solid position.
Practical next steps
- Play one rapid game (15 | 10 or 30 | 0) each week to practise moving and thinking in a single sitting.
- Keep a short pre-move checklist: “Centre pawns out – minor pieces out – castle – connect rooks.”
- After every game, spend five minutes with the engine and record one mistake to avoid in the next game.
Great work so far! When you feel ready, challenge me or neverreginald for a rematch and put these ideas into practice.