Ajay Krishnan (aykm): Biography of a Rapid Chess Grinder
Ajay Krishnan, known across the board as aykm, operates on a simple formula: start with e4, steer toward an endgame, and outlast everyone in the building. Since 2013, the account has logged more than 20,000 online chess games, a decade-long climb from a 1330-rated newcomer to the deep 2600s in blitz. The preferred battlefield is Rapid chess, so this biography is told accordingly, at a thoughtful pace with no rushed captures.
The Long Climb
The archive opens in April 2013 with three Rapid games, three wins, and a starting rating of 1330. A promising debut, followed by years of honest work. The bullet-heavy stretch of 2016 and 2017 pushed the clock ratings toward 2000, then came a near-hibernation through 2018 to 2021 (three games in 2018, one lone game in 2021), and finally the great return of 2022.
From there the numbers get silly. August 2023 alone featured 528 blitz games, roughly seventeen per day and an untold number of skipped chores. The blitz peak reached 2707 (2026-04-30) by April 2026, bullet touched 2675 (2025-04-07) in the spring of 2025, and the Rapid rating, the true crown jewel, climbed to 2505 (2025-12-20) in December 2025. The full Rapid arc, from 1330 past 2400, is charted below.
Rapid Fire, Slow Burn
Rapid chess is where the patient style pays best: 166 wins, 77 losses, and 42 draws, with a strength-adjusted win rate near 58 percent, comfortably the strongest mark of any format with a serious sample. The signature weapon here is the Caro-Kann Defense, good for a 65.79 percent Rapid win rate, and the classical Giuoco Piano has been even deadlier in the Tarrasch Variation: six wins, one loss, zero mercy.
The moves above are the quiet handshake before the long squeeze: bishops on their classic diagonals, a pawn planted on c3, and a plan that keeps working long after the opponent's coffee has gone cold.
The Repertoire: e4 Today, e4 Forever
As White, the first move is e4 and it is not close. Thousands of games begin with the king's pawn, with d4, c4, and the occasional experimental Nc3 cameo to keep scouts honest. The Caro-Kann towers over the database with more than 1,100 blitz appearances, Scandinavian Defense battles number over 400, and the Petrov's Defense in bullet has quietly won at nearly 55 percent.
Opponents bring their own spice. The Amazon Attack has appeared over 300 times in blitz and, at a 33.5 percent win rate for the defender, it is the closest thing to kryptonite in the file. The Poisoned Pawn setup against the London System shows up nearly 400 times, and bullet rivals have even deployed the Amar Gambit and the Barnes Defense, which is 1...f6 and exactly as cheerful to face as it sounds.
Rivals, Routed and Otherwise
Every long career collects characters, and this ledger is colorful. The record against deanalk reads 28 games, 24 wins, 0 losses, 4 draws, which is less a rivalry than a subscription service. On the other side of the ledger sits Norman Weinstein, the certified nemesis, at 5 wins, 13 losses, and 4 draws that keep the ego properly refrigerated. The most-played opponent of all, swinghigh11, leads the series 14-10-5 across 29 meetings, while mathnerd55 trails 16-10-3 and Scatman 5000, holder of the finest username in the contacts list, trails 15-10-2.
Style: The Patient Python
- Endgames are home turf: about 84 percent of all games reach one, and average victories run nearly 90 moves. This is chess served in a slow cooker.
- The first capture usually arrives around move six. Why hurry a win that is already on the schedule?
- The comeback rate sits at a striking 85.6 percent, and only about a third of defeats end in an early resignation, so lost positions get fought, not folded.
- Checkmate deliveries account for just 0.09 percent of analyzed games. Most opponents resign, flag, or quietly log off, leaving 9,080 wins classified simply as "Unknown."
- The rook is the favorite checking piece with over 25,000 rook checks delivered, plus 138 checks given by the king, because occasionally style points matter.
Quirks and Fun Facts
- Best hour to play: 2 PM, where the win rate climbs to 55.8 percent. The early evening hours are considerably hungrier.
- Longest winning streak: 13 games. Longest losing streak: 14. The response to the losing streak was to simply keep playing.
- Tilt factor: a placid 14. Bad beats bounce off fast around here.
- Across 20,198 analyzed games: 66,685 checks delivered and 59,493 absorbed, a healthy checking surplus.
- The Daily chess peak of 1568 has stood since June 2013, protected by the genius strategy of barely playing Daily chess.
The Bottom Line
Ajay Krishnan is living proof that chess improvement is a marathon played one careful move at a time. Thirteen years of e4 openings, grinding endgames, rivalries both triumphant and humbling, and a Rapid rating that traveled from 1330 to 2500 along the way. The username may say aykm, but the games say everything else: the position is winning, the clock is fine, and dinner can wait.