Zuzana Borosova WGM

Hi Zuzana!

Great job steadily pushing your rapid rating upwards – your current peak is 2352 (2020-08-22). The recent victory against IAmTheBestChessPiece shows how far your tactical intuition has come.

What you already do well

• Opening awareness. With White you handle the French Delayed-Exchange and various Closed Sicilians smoothly, and with Black you aren’t afraid of the sharp Winawer-like structures. Your first 10 moves rarely leave theory.
• Piece activity. In almost every win the engines approve of how quickly your rooks reach open files (e.g. 24.Rf2!! vs IAmTheBestChessPiece).
• Conversion technique. Once a pawn up, you keep the position simple and use end-game fundamentals – the win vs monteneri is a textbook example.

Growth areas

1. Early middlegame planning. In the loss to Robert Csolle (Ruy Lopez, 15 + 10) you entered the Caro Variation but allowed 7.c3 with the bishop already on c5, wasting tempi. • Ask yourself “What is my next pawn break?” before committing a piece. • A simple …Be7/…h6/…d6 setup would have kept the position equal.
2. Patience vs lower-rated players. Each of the five January losses came against opponents 1000–1150. The common factor was resignation in still-playable positions. Treat every game as practice and play on until the evaluation is clearly –5 or worse.
3. King safety in double-flank pawn storms. In multiple French-type positions you push g- and h-pawns aggressively. When it works (see move 23 in the featured win) it’s brilliant, but in the Sicilian loss the same plan left your king stuck on g1 with heavy pieces coming. • Add the “automatic” habit of inserting h3/h6 before opening files. • Re-examine classic games from Tal and Shirov to see the balance between attack and shelter.
4. Clock management. You spend less than 10 % of your time on critical moves 15–25, then burn down under 2 minutes in balanced endings. • Consider a quick 10-second scan after your opponent’s move (threats, captures, checks) to avoid impulse replies. • Try a few 10 + 5 games; the shorter format forces concise calculation and tougher discipline.

Concrete homework

1. Analyse your last win with an engine and write down one alternative for each of moves 14-20. (Paste the game into a board or use
   inside Chess.com’s “Analyse” tab.)
2. Play 10 blitz games starting with 1…e5 and focus on not moving the dark-squared bishop twice in the first 10 moves.
3. Study the model game Karpov–Unzicker, Nice 1974 – it perfectly illustrates French-Exchange structures that remain symmetrical yet still give winning chances.
4. For king-side pawn storms, review the concept of half-open files via open file. Aim to keep at least one rook on a central file while the other joins the attack.

Progress tracker

Keep the energy and creativity flowing, Zuzana! With a bit more patience against lower-rated opposition and tighter opening discipline, 2300+ rapid is within reach.