abrikosai: The Apricot That Refuses to Fall Off the Board
Meet abrikosai, a username that appears to be Lithuanian for "apricots" attached to an opponent list that reads like the stalls of a Baltic fruit market. Since first logging on in February 2018, abrikosai has played more than 5,000 online games and slowly ripened into one of the internet's most stubborn bullet chess specialists. The preferred time control is bullet, the preferred hour is 2 a.m., and the preferred response to losing a piece is to keep playing anyway, because the numbers say that usually works out just fine.
The Great Ripening: An Eight-Year Climb Through the Blitz Ladder
The journey began modestly, with blitz hovering in the 1600s and bullet briefly dipping as low as 1334. Then the fruit started climbing and never really stopped. Touched 2000 blitz by November 2018. Cleared 2100 in the summer of 2019. Crossed 2200 during the locked-in year of 2020. A first taste of 2400 arrived in December 2021, 2500 came in 2023, and in September 2026, after playing 228 blitz games in a single month, the peak reached 2745 (2026-09-19), closing that month at 2703. Bullet followed the same slow roast, climbing from that 1334 low all the way to a peak of 2612 (2026-09-24) in the same golden autumn.
Bullet Chess and the Amar Gambit: A Love Story Told at 2 A.M.
Bullet is where abrikosai does its best work, with a record of 494 wins, 276 losses and 60 draws. The signature weapon is the Amar Gambit, an opening so famously bad that most people play it as a joke. abrikosai has played it 66 times in bullet for a 73% win rate, including 37 games as White at 78%. Exhibit A, the entire crime scene:
The supporting cast includes the Hungarian Opening: Wiedenhagen-Beta Gambit at a menacing 84.6% as White, a trusty King's Indian Attack, and, as Black, a Caro-Kann Defense deployed 45 times for a tidy 60%. But the real cheat code may be circadian. The best hour of the day is 02:00, and the win rate in the 1, 2 and 3 a.m. slots reads a perfect 100%. If a challenge arrives from abrikosai in the middle of the night, the polite move is to reschedule for 5 a.m., the one wobbly hour, when the win rate sags to a mortal 44.7%.
Playing Style: An Endgame Machine With No Off Switch
The stats paint a very specific creature: an endgame appears in 83% of games, the average win runs about 85 moves, the first capture usually waits until around move seven, and the early resignation rate sits just above 1, which in practice means it never happens. Games are long, material is hoarded, and the opponent's clock is treated as a legitimate strategic resource.
- Comeback rate: 86.2%, one of the most stubborn conversion numbers imaginable.
- Win rate after dropping a piece: 51%, so lost material is filed under "rounding error".
- One-sided losses: 1.25%. When abrikosai loses, there is usually at least a scuffle.
- Tilt factor: 10, on whatever scale that is, and it reads "unbothered".
- Longest win streak: 27 games. Longest losing streak: 10. Even fruit bruises.
- Checkmate delivered in just 0.54% of games, with the rook as the favorite checking piece, ahead of the queen by about 140 checks.
The net effect: you do not beat abrikosai so much as negotiate an exit.
Opening Repertoire: From 1.e4 Romantic to Full-Time 1.d4 Convert
The repertoire has evolved like a coming-of-age film. In 2018 the king's pawn led the way, 77 e4 openers against 59 d4 openers, plus a single experimental 1.g4 that the statistics mercifully recorded only once. By 2026 the script had completely flipped: 154 d4 first moves, 2 e4. The romantic period is over. The endgame clergy now runs the parish.
In blitz, the main battlefield is the Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation, played 138 times at a 44% win rate, which is either loyalty or defiance. Elsewhere: plain Sicilians at 53.5%, the Amazon Attack over 106 games at 54.7%, a Modern at 55%, and a famously troubled relationship with the Caro-Kann.
Daily chess is where a different beast emerges, with a 76-10-11 record and a pet line: the Ruy Lopez: Schliemann Defense, 42 games, only 4 losses, 85.7% overall, and a ludicrous 19-1 as Black. The moves, for those who like their wing gambits spicy:
Nemesis File: Turinys, Rodblordar and the Market Rivals
Every long career collects villains, and this one has a full shopping list. The series against rodblordar sits at a perfectly balanced 9-9-2 over 20 games, the kind of rivalry that deserves its own group chat. Against turinys the ledger reads 3-12-2, the closest thing to kryptonite on the calendar. Martynas Limontas leads 10-3 with 6 draws. On the happier side of the till, Matas Norkeliunas 2006-11-03 has been picked clean at 11-3, and Augustinas Bazilius, whose name loosely suggests fermented potato, has been thoroughly mashed at 9-1-3.
abrikosai Fun Facts: Quick Bites From the Fruit Stand
- The win rate at 1, 2 and 3 a.m. is 100%. Sample size modest, confidence absolute.
- The win rate at 5 a.m. is 44.7%. That is your window. Use it wisely.
- Daily chess record: 76 wins, 10 losses, 11 draws.
- Early-career drawn games averaged around 125 moves, which is less a draw and more a residency.
- Against lower-rated opposition the win rate is 65.5%; against higher-rated opposition, 30.7%. The fruit feasts down the ladder and gets nibbled up it.
- When abrikosai delivers the first check, the win rate jumps to 62%. Beware the rook.
- The repertoire once featured a Colle System line grandly titled the Rhamphorhynchus Variation, named after a pterosaur, which feels correct for bullet chess.
The Bottom Line
Eight years, more than 5,000 games, a 27-game win streak, an endgame-heavy style that smothers hope slowly, and a bullet repertoire that includes an opening that should not work but somehow does. abrikosai is living proof that in online chess, patience plus a clock plus mildly nocturnal habits is a legitimate grand strategy. Play at your own risk, and maybe not at 2 a.m.