Amar Hadzic: Blitz Chess Marathoner
Amar Hadzic, known on the leaderboard as amarhadzic1980, is an online chess grinder in the purest sense of the word. The 1980 in his username is either his birth year or the last time he took a day off. Since surfacing in February 2023 at a modest 1728 blitz rating, he has piled up more than 31,000 rated games, nearly all of them blitz chess, at a pace of roughly two dozen games per day. Some people unwind with a crossword. Amar unwinds with another 1.e4.
This Amar Hadzic profile, reconstructed by a very patient database, tells the story of a night-shift tactician, a Philidor loyalist, a man whose favorite checking piece is the queen and whose least favorite hour is 2 AM. He dabbles in bullet and rapid like a man sampling appetizers, but blitz is the buffet.
The Long Climb
Amar arrived in February 2023 rated 1728 and treated the ladder like a treadmill set to incline. He cracked 2200 within weeks, spent 2024 orbiting the low 2200s, then kicked into another gear entirely: 2400+ by the end of 2025 and a personal-best 2613 (2026-08-25) reached in August 2026. Not bad for someone who has never met a challenge queue he didn't like.
The climb was never a straight line. His longest winning streak is 16 games, his longest losing streak is 12, and the queue absorbed both without complaint. But with an 86.65% comeback rate, lost positions in his games are suggestions rather than verdicts, and when a game is truly dead he resigns early and moves on. At this volume, courtesy is a survival skill.
An Opening Repertoire Built on Loyalty
With the white pieces, the repertoire is one word long: 1.e4. In 2026, every single one of his 4,319 White games opened with the king's pawn. His complete list of exceptions across four years fits on a fortune cookie: a few d4s, one lonely a4, and two 1.g4 attempts the account insists were intentional. Against the Sicilian he reaches for the Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation more than 3,500 times, and Caro-Kann and French players have faced him so often they should probably start paying rent.
With Black, it is loyalty all the way down. Over 5,400 blitz games in the Philidor Defense at just under 49%, plus 1,800 forays into the Benoni Defense: Old Benoni. And in the greatest branding coincidence in the database, there really is an opening called the Amar Gambit, and Amar has played it 380 times in blitz for a 41% score. Sharing a name with an opening and still losing with it is either brand loyalty or commitment to the bit.
A typical slice of the Philidor menu:
Rivalries and Nemesis Management
Volume this high builds a supporting cast. Stefan Busch is his most frequent sparring partner at 46 games, a dead-even 22-20-4 tug of war. ashgrig is the favorite victim, 18 wins against 11 losses. chesspapa leads their series 17 to 12, because father knows best. And T C leads 18 to 11, the prehistoric thorn in an otherwise productive side.
The ladder itself tells a familiar story: about 66% wins against lower-rated opponents, 42% against equals, and 26% against higher-rated ones. He eats down the ladder and politely pays tuition above it.
Playing Style: The 3 AM Grinder
The numbers sketch a patient brawler. First capture usually lands around move six, more than 82% of games stroll into an endgame, and his average win runs about 76 moves while his average loss trundles to 81. He checks with the queen more than any other piece, delivers the first check just over half the time, and converts 53% of games when he checks first versus 38% when someone checks him first. The blueprint is simple: hit first, hit with the lady.
Then there is the clock, both kinds. He loses on time far more often than he wins on time, the flat tax for playing 80-move marathons at blitz tempo. His results by hour are the strangest stat in the file: 25% wins at 2 AM, nearly 73% at 3 AM. The gap between his worst and best hour is sixty minutes and possibly a nap. Add best weekday Monday, worst weekday Sunday, and you get a nocturnal predator with Monday motivation.
Amar Hadzic by the Numbers
- 31,000+ rated games since February 2023, the overwhelming majority in blitz
- Longest win streak: 16 games. Longest losing streak: 12
- 86.65% comeback rate, and only 0.95% of losses are one-sided blowouts
- Resigns early in about 45% of lost games: quick handshakes, instant rematches
- 18 career stalemate draws, for the days mercy was on the menu
- 29,872 checks delivered with the queen, and 182 with the king, which is either bravado or a cry for help
- Median opening preparation deepened from 4 moves in 2023 to 7 by 2026, so the homework is real
- Best hour: 3 AM. Worst hour: 2 AM. Make it make sense
The Scouting Report
Expect 1.e4. Expect d6. Expect a long, grinding fight in which a lost position is treated as a negotiation. Above all, expect him to be sharper than any human should be at 3 in the morning. Whether Amar Hadzic is pushing toward a new peak or clawing out of a slump, one thing is certain: the queue never stays empty for long.