Aleksandr Volodin (AVolodin)
Aleksandr Volodin, known online as AVolodin, is a FIDE Grandmaster who turned online speed chess into a full-contact sport. While many titled players treat blitz and bullet as a warmup, Volodin made them his personal arena, reaching the kind of ratings that make other grandmasters think twice before clicking "play".
Career at a Glance
- Title: Grandmaster, awarded by FIDE
- Preferred time control: Blitz
- Peak Blitz rating: 2826 (2023-11-28)
- Peak Bullet rating: 2824 (2023-11-20)
- Longest winning streak: 25 games
- Career blitz record: 694 wins, 306 losses, 72 draws
- Career bullet record: 1896 wins, 1691 losses, 187 draws
A Climb Through the Rating Charts
Volodin's rating history is a study in persistence and explosive growth. He entered 2015 as a strong player around 2350 in blitz and emerged from 2023 with a peak north of 2800. The chart below tells the story:
His most dominant stretch came in April 2020, when he won 109 blitz games against just 9 losses. That kind of form separates elite speed chess players from the merely excellent, and Volodin has produced it more than once.
Playing Style and Opening Repertoire
Volodin is a devoted 1.d4 player. As White, his signature weapon is the Amazon Attack: Siberian Attack, an aggressive line he has played hundreds of times with a win rate above 60 percent in both bullet and blitz. As Black, he is equally adventurous, willingly stepping into the Benko Gambit and the Sicilian Defense in forms ranging from the Accelerated Dragon to the Alapin Variation.
The numbers paint a picture of a relentless fighter. He wins more than half of his games even after losing a piece, and his comeback rate is a remarkable 86 percent. His losses average nearly 90 moves, so anyone who beats him earns every point.
Rivalries and Repeat Customers
Every great online player has familiar faces in the queue, and Volodin has a whole cast of them. His longest rivalry is with RRR RRR, who has faced him 167 times, with Volodin taking 112 of those games. He also dominates lev_chess_10, winning 107 of their 115 meetings. The one thorn in his side is georgii308, who actually leads the head-to-head series 39 wins to 33.
These recurring battles are the lifeblood of online chess, and Volodin clearly thrives on them.
Quirks, Habits, and Fun Facts
Volodin is at his deadliest at 5 PM, when his win rate approaches 70 percent, and at his most vulnerable on Sundays, his worst day of the week. Opponents tend to resign early against him, which is a polite way of saying he converts pressure into points. When he gets to play the Bird Opening: Dutch Variation, Batavo Gambit as Black, his blitz win rate is an absurd 85 percent.
His win rates by opening show just how varied his attacking toolkit is:
He also carries a tilt factor of 14, a fancy way of saying even grandmasters have off moments. The good news for his fans is that those moments are rare and never last long.