BestRamen: The Slurp Heard Round the Blitz World
Every great explorer needs a vessel, and Vasco D'agama chose a bowl of noodles. Racing under the username BestRamen, this blitz specialist charted a route from 1300-rated paddling waters to the stormy seas of 2800+ blitz in barely two years, a voyage that would make the original Vasco da Gama demand a seatbelt. Along the way he has delivered over 27,000 checks, mostly with the rook, because queens are for people with patience. His peak blitz rating stands at a stomach-warming 2868 (2026-05-17).
From Instant Noodles to Grand Feast
BestRamen's April 2023 debut was modest: five blitz games, one loss, and a rating of about 1304. Then came July 2024, when he played 225 blitz games in a single month and discovered a higher gear. August brought 620 more. By September he had cracked 2700, and the rest of the timeline reads like the stock chart of a company selling exactly what everyone wants. It was less a steady improvement than a man deciding, mid-broth, that he was done being medium spice.
Openings: The Modern Method
BestRamen opens with 1.e4 with the devotion of a man who has already decided how his evening will go. As White, the Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation (over 900 games) and the trusty Scotch Game carry the load, with the Scotch producing a healthy 57% score. As Black, he is loyal to a fault: the Modern Defense appears in more than 1,200 blitz games, a stubborn love affair with the kingside fianchetto that persists despite results best described as character building. The Australian Defense gets 600-plus outings too, because every voyage needs a little danger. His signature setup:
He is far happier when opponents serve him a Caro-Kann Defense to meet, against which he scores a beefy 58%. The pattern is clear: give BestRamen structure and he thrives; let him improvise and he will happily improvise his way into a worse endgame, then win it anyway.
The Rivals
No bowl is complete without toppings, and no blitz career is complete without nemeses. Alan Stein has faced BestRamen 49 times and leads the head-to-head 26 to 20, making him the chili oil that keeps the broth honest. Sudhanshu Ranjan also holds a comfortable edge, 16 wins to 8. On the friendlier side of the menu sits serkretbro, against whom BestRamen feasts to the tune of 21 wins against 9 losses, a rivalry best described as all you can eat.
Style, Habits, and Late-Night Hazards
- Endgame connoisseur: roughly 79% of his games wander into an endgame, and his average win lasts nearly 82 moves. He does not beat you so much as brine you.
- Comeback artist: his comeback rate sits at a giddy 88%, and he still wins 45% of games even after dropping a piece. The flip side is an 89% early resignation rate, because he respects your time more than his own ego.
- Perfectly balanced: longest winning streak, 14 games. Longest losing streak, also 14 games. The universe keeps its books in order.
- Peak hours: he is deadliest around 15:00, winning over half his games. At 23:00 his win rate rounds to a flat 0%, a public service announcement that the late-night ramen is a trap.
- Tilt-proof: a tilt factor of 14, with one-sided losses in only about 1.5% of his games. The broth stays calm.
- Slower formats confuse him: his entire rapid career spans nine games, and his daily record reads 1-2, evidence that a player raised on blitz considers three minutes a long, luxurious think.
Legacy
Whether he is sparring with Paul Szuper in yet another Alapin or leading with the rook for the 27,220th time, BestRamen embodies a simple philosophy: play a lot, resign politely, and never under any circumstances queue a game at 11 p.m. The bowl is deep, the broth is hot, and the Modern Defense, apparently, is not going to learn itself.