Vlad-Cristian Jianu GM

Quick summary

Nice set of blitz games — sharp, attacking play and strong conversion in your wins. You create concrete targets (passed pawns, open files) and are comfortable with messy, tactical positions. The recent loss shows where opponents can generate counterplay when you underestimate kingside threats or get low on time.

What you do well

• Active piece play: you repeatedly bring rooks and queen into the attack quickly — that pressures opponents and forces mistakes.
• Creating and converting passed pawns: several wins show good technique once a pawn breaks through.
• Opening variety and preparation: you’re comfortable in many systems (example in the PGNs you handled lines from the Nimzowitsch Defense and the Sicilian Defense).
• Endgame patience: long technical wins show you can grind and keep the king active when needed.

Recurring weaknesses to fix

• Time management in blitz — several games show clocks falling quickly in critical moments. Use simpler early plans to save time for tactics and endgames.
• Allowing opponent counterplay on the kingside after castling long — avoid giving free checks/sacrifices and be careful with pawn pushes in front of your king.
• Tactical oversight in complex positions when the clock is low — missed defensive resources or small intermezzo moves cost momentum.
• Occasional over-optimistic simplifications — trading into unclear endgames where the opponent gets activity (watch queen and rook trades that activate enemy pawns).

Concrete drills & short-term plan (1–2 weeks)

• Daily tactics: 20–30 tactics/day focused on forks, skewers, discovered attacks and back-rank patterns (5–10 minute sessions). This reduces tactical misses under time pressure.
• Time-control habit: in 3–5 blitz sessions, force yourself to spend no more than 10–15 seconds per move for the first 10 moves (use a simple opening plan). Save time for move 11+ where tactics happen.
• Endgame focus: 15 minutes, three times this week, on basic rook endgames and king + pawn vs king technique — make your conversion routine reliable.
• Review losses: pick 3 recent losses (including the Scheveningen/Sicilian loss vs Matei-Valeriu Mogirzan), find the turning move in each, and write a 1–2 sentence corrective plan for that position.

Game-specific notes (key moment)

Here is the decisive sequence from one of your recent wins — replay it to see how the queen fixes squares and rooks convert a passed pawn. Notice the transition from active pieces to a winning endgame plan.

Tip: this plan (queen centralization → rook infiltration → passed pawn) is repeatable. Look for the same pawn-structure cues in other games.

How to handle the typical blitz trap you faced

In the loss vs Matei-Valeriu Mogirzan you allowed kingside activity while being tied up on the queenside. To prevent this:

• Before committing to queenside pawn storms or long castling, check for opponent tactical breaks (knight jumps, pawn thrusts, discovered checks).
• Keep a defender available (knight or rook that can quickly return). If you must push pawns, ensure you have an escape square or a blocking resource for checks.
• When low on time, prioritize simplifying only if the resulting position is clearly better for you (avoid trades that give the opponent active pawns or open files to queen/rooks).

Weekly targets

• Do 100 tactics this week, focusing on motifs you miss in blitz (discovered attacks, intermezzos).
• Play 10 blitz games with the goal: “spend less than 90 seconds on the first 12 moves.”
• Analyze 3 decisive games (wins or losses) with short notes: turning move, better alternative, and one training task to avoid the same mistake.

Longer-term improvements (1–3 months)

• Polish 1–2 opening lines so you can play them automatically in blitz. Make a 1–page cheat-sheet for each key variation.
• Structured endgame study once a week (rook endings, knight vs bishop, king+pawn endgames) — this turns advantages into wins reliably.
• Track your time usage per game for a week and aim to remove “panic moments” — review any game where you used more than 50% of time before move 25.

Motivation & next steps

Your win rate and long history show strong fundamentals. Small targeted fixes — tactical consistency, simple opening plans to save time, and prophylaxis when castling long — will yield quick gains in blitz.

Start with the tactics + time-control habit for the next 7 days and then send 3 annotated games. I can turn those into a focused drill plan and a short checklist to use in future games.