Thi Thu Hien Pham (aka Biacoca)
Title: Woman FIDE Master (WFM)
Peak Ratings: Blitz 2633 (Feb 2025), Bullet 2430 (Oct 2021), Rapid 1976 (Jun 2018)
Biography
Thi Thu Hien Pham, known in the chess world as Biacoca, is a formidable Woman FIDE Master with a penchant for blitz battles that could make grandmasters sweat. With a peak blitz rating soaring to an impressive 2633, Biacoca is not just your average player but a tactical maestro who thrives in the fast-paced chaos of online arenas.
Starting strong back in 2017 with a blitz rating around 2100, she steadily climbed the ladder of speed chess dominance, managing to break into the 2500+ rating territory by 2019 and continuing her rise up to 2633. While her bullet and rapid ratings are notably lower, this only underlines her explosive strength in blitz — where seconds count and nerves tremble.
Biacoca's style is marked by resilience and endurance: an exceptional comeback rate of 88% when facing adversity, combined with a low early resignation rate of less than 1%, shows she's not one to quit easily. The psychological tilt factor is impressively low too, meaning even under pressure, calmness reigns.
Playing Style & Performance
- Endgame Wizard: She engages in endgames very often (88% frequency), showing deep strategic understanding.
- White Pieces: Has a slight edge with a 51.17% win rate.
- Opening Repertoire: Loves the mysterious “Top Secret” openings in blitz — results range around 48% win rate across 5,000+ games — which makes her the kind of player whose opponents probably think, “What did I just walk into?”
- Strongest in Blitz and Bullet: With over 5,000 blitz games and more than 2,200 bullet games under her belt, Biacoca definitely prefers to resolve battles with lightning speed.
Notable Stats & Quirks
Her longest winning streak is a slick 13 games, proving that once she gets on a roll, stopping her is like trying to catch a greased bishop! Conversely, her longest losing streak is a modest 10 games — even the best have off days.
Fun fact: she’s at her sharpest playing around 7 PM, which is presumably when her brain switches to queen mode.
Recent Games
In one recent victory (May 2025), playing White in the Vienna Game's Max Lange Paulsen Variation, Biacoca masterfully forced her opponent to resign after a positional squeeze — all in under 41 moves. On the flip side, losses like the one against QuesoDeJalisco in the French Defense Exchange Variation remind us that even WFM Biacoca is human (however unwilling!).
In essence, Thi Thu Hien Pham is a chess force to be reckoned with — a speed demon with nerves of steel, and a secretive opening repertoire no one quite deciphers. A champion who plays as fast as she thinks and thinks faster than you blink.