Coach Chesswick
Hi tuksz – personal post-game report
What you are already doing extremely well
- Opening flexibility. You switch comfortably between the King’s Indian Attack, Nimzo-Larsen, the Modern/King’s Indian set-ups and the Nimzowitsch (…Nc6) Defence. Opponents never know whether they are facing a flank fianchetto or a centre-first approach.
- Tactical danger-sense. Typical shots such as 18.Nd5!! in your win vs alexrustemov and 19.Ne6+! in the Larsen game appear quickly on your board – the calculations are crisp and rarely miss resources.
- Converting material advantages. Once a pawn or exchange up you usually keep the pieces active, centralise the king and finish with clean technique (see the R+P vs R ending vs LiamPutnam).
- Clock handling. Even in 3 | 0 you are entering critical positions with 1:40–2:00 left – a very healthy buffer that lets you calculate instead of premove.
Priority improvements
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Pawn-structure hygiene.
The losses show repeated early …g6/h6/…h5 or h-pawn thrusts when your king is still in the centre, producing dark-square holes that strong opponents exploit.
• Drill some “castle first, ask later” discipline.
• Add the idea of waiting moves (…Re8, …c6, …h6 only when necessary) to your Modern and Nimzowitsch repertoire. -
Plans in symmetric/closed structures.
In the Queen’s Indian loss you reached the diagram below and ran short of ideas, drifting with …a5, …h5, …g5. Create a mental checklist:- Target the base of White’s pawn chain (…b5–b4 or …c5).
- Occupy the only open file before pushing side-pawns.
- Ask “what improves my worst piece?” every two moves.
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Practical defence.
In several setbacks you resigned in positions that were unpleasant but still defensible (engine ≈ +3). Adopt a rule: if there is counter-play or opposite-coloured bishops, play on; you will save rating points when the opponent slips under time pressure. -
Trim the Nimzowitsch Defence repertoire.
The current line (1 e4 Nc6 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 Nf6 4 Nc3 g6) leaves the c-pawn pinned after 10.Bg5 in your loss. Consider the sounder branch 3…e5! or even switching to the Pirc/Modern move-order where …c6 neutralises Bg5 ideas.
In-game snapshot
Try finding a holdable plan for Black in the position that ended your Queen’s Indian game:
Action plan for the next two weeks
- Play 25 blitz games where you never push the rook pawns before move 10 unless it wins material.
- Analyse 10 Queen’s Indian structures with the theme “minority attack vs central break” – engine off for the first pass.
- Solve 50 defensive puzzles filtered for “side to move and survive”.
- Replace the current Nimzowitsch line with the classical Pirc for at least 20 test games; note the difference in middlegame pawn structures.
Stats & trends
Your peak blitz rating so far: 2961 (2022-11-10). Keep an eye on when the losses cluster:
• Hourly performance →
• Day-of-week swings →
Glossary jump-links
Need a quick refresher while reviewing? Tap: prophylaxis, minority_attack, zwischenzug.