Coach Chesswick
Hi Francisco (“varacalli”) – Personal Game Review
Congratulations on maintaining a Master-level rating and reaching a recent 2546 (2019-09-22). The comments below draw on your six latest wins and five latest losses.
At-a-Glance
- Hourly performance:
- Win-rate by day:
What You Already Do Very Well
- Dynamic pawn breaks. 22.d5! against Nightwing2003 seized the initiative and never let go.
- Activity over material. 19.Nxd7!? (vs DouglasTumenas) was a thematic exchange sacrifice that left your pieces buzzing around an exposed king.
- Reti/English structures. Opening moves Nf3–g3-Bg2 feel natural to you and regularly produce playable middlegames.
- Technical conversions under time pressure. The rook ending vs Alaju3l3 (59.Rxh5) showed calm, accurate technique with only seconds left.
Recurring Pain-Points
- Defensive accuracy when the king is the target.
In the Bird’s Opening loss (Zpen - varacalli) your 25…h6 resource was missed, allowing White to crash through. - Quick material grabs with the queen.
11…Qxb4+!? (Nguyen_Si_Trong_Duc - varacalli) walked into easy tempi and a lost position. Before pawn-snatching, ask “How many free developing moves do I give the opponent?” - Simplifying plans in Slav structures.
Versus SalehAlzayed you equalised but drifted; …a6 & …b5 was the thematic liberating plan that never appeared. - King activity in endgames.
In the French ending vs VesnaTesting64 White’s king marched to e5 while yours stayed on c4, tipping the balance. - Time allocation.
You move almost instantly in the opening, then burn on tough positions. Aim to keep ≥60 % of your clock after move 15 in at least half of your rapid games.
Opening Menu – Suggested Tweaks
- Add a second system against 1.d4 (e.g. Tarrasch or Semi-Slav) so opponents cannot prepare for one line only.
- Versus 1.e4 consider a flexible Sicilian; your current French structures often get cramped and invite pawn storms.
Critical Moment Exercise
Find the saving line for Black after 25.Ng5 in your Bird’s-Opening defeat:
[[Pgn|1.f4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.e3 d6 4.Bb5 Bd7 5.b3 Nf6 6.Bb2 g6 7.O-O Bg7 8.d3 Nh5 9.Bxg7 Nxg7 10.Nbd2 Kf8 11.Bxc6 Bxc6 12.e4 e6 13.Qe2 f5 14.Qe3 Qd7 15.e5 Re8 16.d4 d5 17.dxc5 Kf7 18.b4 Rhf8 19.Nb3 Kg8 20.a4 Bxa4 21.Nbd4 a6 22.Rfd1 Rc8 23.Rd2 Bb5 24.Rc1 Bc4 25.Ng5 …]Solution: 25…h6! 26.Ngf3 b6! = Black holds.
Two-Week Training Plan
- 15 min daily tactics focusing on back-rank and removal-of-defender motifs.
- Annotate three GM games with the …dxc4 Slav and identify common middlegame plans.
- Play five 10 | 5 rapid games, logging time usage after move 15.
- Endgame drill: rook vs rook + two pawns; emphasise activating the king.
Next Milestone
If you tighten up queen-grabs, improve time management, and rehearse key defensive themes, you should break 2313 (2020-08-15) 2600 in the near future.
Keep up the great work, and enjoy the journey!