Nicholas Van Der Nat: The Bullet Atlas
Meet the Master
Nicholas Van Der Nat, known online as AmazingAtlas, is a FIDE Master who has made the internet his chess playground. While he holds a recognized title, his real kingdom is the bullet board, where lightning reflexes and chaotic creativity rule. With a peak bullet rating of 2703 (2026-03-24), he has proven that a titled player can also be a marathon man of speed chess.
Bullet Marathoner
Since 2013, Van Der Nat has played an astronomical number of bullet games, piling up more than 20,000 recorded encounters. His rating journey has been anything but boring, climbing from the 1800s to a stunning 2703 peak. The chart below shows his long, bumpy ride through bullet chess.
He is not afraid of a fight. His longest winning streak reached 18 games, while his longest losing streak stretched to 19, proof that he plays with the accelerator pinned even when the wheels fall off. His comeback rate is a remarkable 81%, and he wins 44.87% of games even after losing a piece. If you see him down material, do not celebrate too early.
Opening Repertoire
Van Der Nat is a creature of habit. He almost always opens with 1.e4 and loves to steer games into sharp theoretical battles. The Sicilian Defense is his bread and butter, especially the Closed Sicilian, which appears thousands of times in his bullet history. He also enjoys the solid Caro-Kann Defense and the aggressive Scandinavian Defense, where he has a healthy winning percentage.
His opening choices show a player who wants dynamic play, not quiet symmetry. The Czech Defense and French Defense also feature heavily, and he scores well with the Scandinavian as White. He is less comfortable in some sharp Sicilian lines, but he keeps coming back for more.
Rivalries
No biography is complete without rivals. Van Der Nat's most frequent opponent is HumbleSpaceMan, a fierce rival across 269 bullet battles. Their head to head record is remarkably tight, with humblespaceman holding a narrow edge. Other regular dance partners include theivanhoe, zen-22, and pikatnimopete, all of whom have faced the Atlas dozens, or even hundreds, of times.
Quirks and Habits
Van Der Nat is a night owl who strangely performs best at 6 a.m., where his win rate jumps above 61%. He is also a fast resigner, ending over half of his lost games early, but he rarely gets blown out in one-sided fashion. His average decisive game lasts around 70 moves, which is long for bullet and suggests he never stops fighting.
With a tilt factor of 19, he occasionally goes on wild swings, but that is part of the charm. He is a player who embodies the chaos, joy, and occasional heartbreak of bullet chess.