Week 95: my 1385 peak, and is Pirc Defense good for beginners?

Week 95 (November 17 to 23, 2025) is the top of the chart: 37 rapid games, 23 wins, 13 losses and 1 draw, and my rating went from 1288 to 1368, with an all-time peak of 1385 on Sunday, November 23. The game that took me there was a Pirc Defense, and the Pirc went 4–0 this week. If you've searched "is Pirc Defense good for beginners", here's one honest data point from an adult improver: it worked for me at around 1300, but not because I played it cleanly.

The week in numbers

Most played openings: Queen's Pawn Opening Zukertort Chigorin Variation (8), Modern Defense with 1 e4 (5), Nimzowitsch Defense Declined Williams Variation (4).

My previous best rating, 1334, was from January 2025. I passed it with game 1862 on Friday, November 21, and climbed, with a few losses on the way, to 1385 after game 1872. Then I lost the last two games of the week and finished at 1368. As Black I scored 13 wins and 7 losses; as White 10 wins, 6 losses and a draw. My White setup (d4, Bf4, Nf3, e3), filed by Chess.com as the Zukertort Variation or Zukertort Chigorin Variation, went 7–2.

The blunder count stays high: 89 in 37 games, 61 of them in the middlegame. Climbing 80 points didn't mean playing clean chess. It meant playing a lot, and my opponents went wrong more often than I did.

Is Pirc Defense good for beginners? My four wins

The four games Chess.com labelled Pirc Defense this week:

• Game 1839, against Ali-askour (1309): the Geller System, with White's bishop on c4 and pawns on c3 and d3. My cleanest one, 91.2% accuracy, won by resignation.
• Game 1867, against GuilhermeRCS1391 (1358): the Harmonist Variation, where White pushed f4 and e5 early. 71.4% and 4 blunders; my opponent abandoned on move 15.
• Game 1868, against Raqirovka (1428), the strongest player I beat all week: White played d4, Nf3, Bd3 and Nc3, and pushed d5 against my knight. 72.2%, and I won by checkmate.
• Game 1872, against lalakuba (1355): White played f4 and Nc3 again. 76.6% and 4 blunders, won by resignation. That's the one that put me on 1385.

So, is the Pirc good for beginners? In my games it gave me positions I recognised, with my pieces on familiar squares (g6, Bg7, d6, Nf6) against very different White setups, and that's worth a lot when you play rapid. But three of the four wins were in the 70s for accuracy. The opening didn't win those games. It got me to middlegames where my opponents' mistakes counted as much as mine.

Three key positions

r . b q . r k .
p . p n p p b p
p . . p . . p .
. . . P . . . .
Q P . . P . . .
P . N . . N . .
. . P . . P P P
R . B . . R K .

Against JHastings1066 (1274), in a g6 game Chess.com filed as the Nimzowitsch Defense, White's 11.b4 was a blunder. The pawn had been on b2, protecting the knight on c3. Now nothing did. Stockfish's move is 11...Bxc3: my bishop on g7 takes a free knight down the long diagonal and attacks the rook on a1, which had no defender either. I played 11...Nb6, attacking the queen, which looked aggressive and gave the advantage back (from -6.35 to -0.23). White blundered again two moves later and I won anyway, by resignation on move 23.

r . . q . r k .
p p . b b p p .
. . . . p n . p
n . p p . . . .
. . . P . B . .
. . P . P N . .
P P Q N B P P P
R . . . K . . R

As White against Papun7 (1275), I attacked Black's knight with 11.Nb3. Stockfish rated it a blunder (+1.15 to -1.06), and its best reply for Black shows why: 11...Ba4, a bishop attacking my knight on b3 with my queen on c2 right behind it on the same diagonal. If the knight moves, the queen is hit. The engine's 11.dxc5 is a simple pawn trade. My opponent played 11...cxd4 instead, and I won by resignation ten moves later.

r . b r . . k .
p p . n . p b p
. . p . . n p .
. . . . p . . .
. q . . P . . .
. P N . . N P .
P . P B . P B P
R . . . Q R K .

The third one is a loss, against yassinabrd63 (1296). My queen was on b4, deep in White's half, and I played 13...Nc5, which opened my rook's line to the bishop on d2. Stockfish's reply for White is 14.a3, a pawn attacking my queen, which had no defender, followed in its line by 15.Be3, attacking my knight on c5 with my queen behind it. The evaluation went from -0.34 to +4.91. The engine's 13...Qe7 brings the queen home first. My opponent played 14.Nd5, I blundered with 14...Qb5, and the game was over on move 15. A queen far forward, and a pawn that can attack it: the same pattern as last week's London game, from the other side.

A stalemate in my favour

One more game deserves a line. Against Jordi2000b (1424), in an Englund Gambit, I blundered on move 11 (from -0.05 to -7.16), fought on, and reached an ending where Black had a queen against my lone king. On move 84 Black's king came to c6 and my king on a6 had no legal move: stalemate. It's the second time this autumn that stalemate saved me: in week 85 I was the losing side too, and my opponent boxed my king in.

The lesson of the week

A peak week isn't proof that I've solved anything. The 89 blunders say otherwise. What I take from it is narrower: in openings where I know the setup well (the Pirc and Modern as Black, d4 and Bf4 as White), I get positions where I can keep playing reasonable moves, and over 37 games that adds up. And the tactical lesson repeats from last week: when a queen goes far forward, look for the pawn move that attacks it, whether it's my opponent's queen or mine.

All games this week

Previous week: week 94. Next week: week 96. The full rating chart is on the journey page. If you play the Pirc and want to know where your games turn, review your own games like this.