Coach Chesswick
Hi Igorba! – Your Personal Chess Progress Report
1. What’s already working
- Fighting spirit: You regularly play on in tough positions and are rewarded with wins on time or by mating nets (see the game vs kingfu88).
- Basic end-game technique: When you reach a clearly won ending (e.g. K + R vs K) you normally finish the job without blundering.
- Active piece play: You seldom leave your pieces passive; even in losses you look for counter-chances.
2. Biggest growth areas
- Blunder check: Four of your last six defeats involved an undefended piece or a missed fork.
➜ Before pressing “move”, ask: “What did I just leave en-prise? – What is my opponent’s most forcing reply?”. - Early king safety: In the loss to ausgetrix you castled on move 30 and were mated quickly. Aim to castle by move 10 unless you have a concrete tactic.
- Consistent openings: Jumps such as 2.Qh5 (loss vs bellam08) ignore opening principles and hand the initiative away. Pick one simple system as White (London / Italian) and one as Black (Scandinavian / French) and stick to them for 30 games.
- Pawn pushes before development: Early g- and h-pawns (games vs MrExtractNW, jaa_xiangjian) weakened your own king. Complete development first.
3. Quick opening checklist
- Control the centre with pawns (e4/d4 or …e5/…d5).
- Develop both knights before either bishop.
- Do not move the same piece twice in the first 10 moves unless you win material.
- Castle.
- Connect the rooks.
- Only then launch pawn storms or piece hunts.
4. Tactical workout
Tactics decide almost every sub-1000 game. Do 15 minutes of puzzle training daily (Puzzle-Rush Survival or rated puzzles). Focus on pins, double attacks, and the classic knight fork. Keep a notebook of every tactic you miss.
5. End-game corner
Your win against ta0lz ended with K + R vs K. Practise the “w-maneuver” mate pattern until you can deliver mate in under 20 seconds – it will save precious clock time.
6. Recent reference games
Latest win (check-mate on move 55)
Latest loss (early centre left king exposed)
7. Weekly mini-plan
| Day | Focus | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Mon / Wed / Fri | 10 puzzles + review | >80 % accuracy |
| Tue / Thu | 3 rapid games using the opening checklist | Castle by move 10 every game |
| Weekend | Self-annotate one game, then engine-check | Find 3 better moves on your own |
8. Your progress in numbers
Peak rapid rating so far: 731 (2023-02-21). Activity heat-map:
Hour-by-hour performance:Keep it fun!
Stick to sound openings, do a quick blunder-check each move, and train tactics daily. With that routine a jump to 600+ is realistic within a month. Good luck, Igorba – and remember: pieces first, pawns later, king safety always!