Anna Zatonskih IM

Personalised Feedback for Anna Zatonskih

What you’re already doing well

• Opening versatility. You confidently alternate between 1.e4 and 1.d4 (even experimenting with Chess960), and as Black you handle both the Scandinavian and Queen’s Gambit Declined structures. This keeps opponents guessing and yields practical chances, as seen in your smooth D35 win against arnarmilutin.
• Dynamic piece play. In several 60-second games you converted middlegame imbalances with accurate tactics (e.g. 23.Bb3! in the same D35 win, and the attacking sequence 22.Bb3–36.Qg7# vs. estonec-xxx).
• End-game technique under pressure. Winning the pawn ending vs. Ald2LilCan after 46.gxh5 shows good calculation even with seconds on the clock.

Quick wins (next 7-14 days)

1. Time-management drills. Five of your recent losses were on time or in severe Zeitnot. Introduce a strict “move by 0:40” rule in bullet/blitz practice: if your clock dips below 40 % of the starting time before move 15, force yourself to pre-move or simplify.
2. Scandinavian clean-up. In several losses (e.g. vs. 007leo) the queen was chased early after 3.Nc3. Adopt 3…Qa5 or 3…Qd6 lines consistently and memorise the first eight moves with a short visible line-file. One mini-repertoire session should be enough.
3. Practical premove repertoire. Build a set of safe bullet end-game premoves (e.g. …g6, …Kg7, …h6) so that you can bank time without blundering pieces.

Medium-term projects (1-3 months)

• Bullet opening pack. Create a 10-tab flash-card deck containing critical traps for Caro–Kann (as White) and the Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange (as Black). Review once before every playing session.
• Structured end-game study. You reach winning endings but sometimes need many moves to convert. Work through one chapter per week of 100 Endgames You Must Know and test yourself in the Chess.com drills set.
• Pattern recognition. Twice you missed intermezzo resources (e.g. 20…Nb6! vs. 007leo). Set up 15 minutes of daily tactic puzzles filtered for “zwischenzug” and “fork” motifs.

Long-term development

Transition from bullet-heavy schedules to include at least 5 rapid games (10|0 or 15|10) per week. The extra calculation depth will raise both tactical consistency and confidence when you return to faster formats.

Illustrative moment

The following fragment from your win vs. Estonec-xxx shows excellent coordination of queen and rook against a fianchettoed king. Keep this blueprint in mind when facing similar pawn shields:

Useful stats & self-monitoring

Bullet peak rating: 2567 (2020-12-29)  |  Blitz peak rating: 2635 (2022-05-17)

Track when you play best:

Next-session checklist

1. Play two warm-up tactics sets (max 3 min each).
2. Review your Scandinavian line file for 5 min.
3. Play a single 5|5 game focusing solely on clock discipline.
4. Only then jump into bullet.

Final thought

You already possess strong tactical intuition and fighting spirit. By adding a layer of clock control and a tighter opening structure, you can convert even more of your advantageous positions. Enjoy the process—small, consistent tweaks will yield big rating gains!