Juan Pablo Hobaica IM

Hola Juan Pablo (Yanhob) 👋

It’s great to see you pushing your blitz and Chess960 rating toward and experimenting with many openings. Below is a concise review of recent patterns, followed by an action-plan to accelerate your improvement.

What you already do well

• Tactical alertness. In your win against nightofzero_on_fire you spotted 29.N7xd5+ and forced a favorable queen trade, showing excellent calculation under 20 sec.
• Counter-punching with the initiative. Your French Defence game vs j0hn-001 (Pgn #3 in the list) featured multiple tempo-gaining moves (17.Ng5!, 27.Nxe6!) that kept Black permanently on the back foot.
• End-game technique. Converting the R+N vs pawn ending in your Chess960 win (h-pawn promotion followed by Nd5#) shows calm execution even with single-digit seconds on the clock.
• Opening creativity. Chess960 forces originality, and you score well there  (
  confirms a positive Friday performance spike).

Recurring issues worth fixing

• Early pawn stabs that weaken your own king. Games you lost often started with …g6 / …h5 or premature …b5. In the loss to Timur Kocharin the structure g6-h5 was targeted by 3.h4!. Consider delaying flank pawn pushes until you have castled.
• Loose piece coordination in the transition to end-games. In the English-Symmetrical loss you allowed 41.Nxc4! because your rooks were disconnected and minor pieces scattered. Aim to double rooks first, then push pawns.
• Clock management. Four of the five recent defeats occurred with <10 sec remaining (one was a loss on time). Try a simple rule: if your clock dips below your move number ×2 sec, enter “panic-free” mode—use a safe response instead of searching for the perfect one.
• Over-reliance on tactics to solve strategic problems. When tactics are absent, you sometimes drift (e.g. Modern Defence loss after 18…dxe5). Introduce one strategic checkpoint every 10 moves: king safety, worst piece, pawn breaks.

Opening recommendations (90-day focus)

1. With White: Add a solid line versus the Modern/Robatsch (1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7) such as 3.Nc3 d6 4.f4. Study 15 illustrative games and build a cue-card of typical plans.
2. With Black: Against 1.d4, streamline into the Queen’s Gambit Accepted or the Tarrasch. Both avoid the early London System clamp that slowed you in several blitz games.
3. Chess960: Keep playing—no added prep needed; focus on principles (center, develop, castle) rather than specific move orders.

End-game drill set

Spend 10 minutes/day on: (1) Rook vs Rook + Pawn side defence, (2) N+B vs K, (3) conversion of an outside passed pawn. These endings appear frequently in your blitz span and will convert extra half-points.

Illustrative miniature

Review the tactics but also note where you could have simplified earlier.

Next-month checklist

• Play three 15|10 games per week to practice slow thinking.
• Annotate one win and one loss after each session—focus on the first irreversible mistake, not the final tactic.
• Watch for the word “hope.” If during a game you think “I hope he doesn’t see…”, look for a safer alternative immediately.

Keep enjoying the game, and reach out any time you’d like deeper analysis!

—Your Chess Coach