Rick Sun: The Sun Never Sets on the Board
Meet the Player
Rick Sun, known online as chessforthesun, is a National Master who treats online chess like a full-time sport. Since his first recorded games in 2014, Rick has played tens of thousands of battles, turning a modest start into an elite online presence. Whether he is blitzing at lightning speed or grinding through a slow maneuver, his username says it all: the sun keeps rising, and so does he.
From Rising Star to National Master
Rick began his online journey with a Blitz rating under 1400, but his ambition was much hotter. By 2017 he crossed 2200, and in 2021 he was knocking on the door of 2700. His peak Blitz rating reached 2734 (2024-05-13) and his Bullet rating touched 2837 (2024-04-20), proving he can handle both deep thinking and pure adrenaline.
His growth is visible in
, a line that looks less like a ladder and more like a volcano. He has never stopped pushing forward, even after a 21-game losing streak that would have cooled most players off.Opening Repertoire and Style
Rick is a creature of habit with a love for offbeat and aggressive setups. With White, he frequently reaches the Amazon Attack, and he has faced the Czech Defense and Philidor Defense thousands of times with Black. His favorite weapon family, the Amazon Attack with the Siberian Attack branch, has won him hundreds of games across Blitz and Bullet.
He is also comfortable in classical lines, regularly playing the Caro-Kann Defense, the French Defense Exchange Variation, and the Benoni Gambit Accepted. Check out his opening results in
to see where the sun shines brightest.Legendary Rivalries
No online career is complete without rivals, and Rick has plenty. His most frequent opponent is canwedoit, with whom he has played 470 games, a true saga of mutual respect and relentless counterplay. He has also traded blows with Leo Bispo, Tiago Pereira Rodrigues, and Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi, each matchup adding another layer to his battle-hardened style.
Against canwedoit, Rick has scored over 200 wins, but has also absorbed more than 240 losses. That is the mark of a player who never ducks a challenge, even when the matchup is unfavorable.
Grit, Comebacks, and the Grind
The numbers tell a story of pure resilience. Rick has a comeback rate of 87.9% and wins over 43% of games even after losing a piece. His longest winning streak was 24 consecutive games, and his longest losing streak was 21. Most players would tilt off the face of the Earth after such a slump, but Rick simply kept clicking play.
He is at his sharpest around 11:00, with a perfect win rate in that hour based on available data. His average decisive game lasts around 70 to 80 moves, meaning he rarely lets his opponent off the hook early. Only about 1% of his games are one-sided losses, so even his defeats tend to be hard-fought.
Why He Keeps Playing
Rick Sun is not just chasing rating points. He is chasing the feeling of outcalculating an opponent, landing a checkmate, or clawing back from a lost position. With nearly 20,000 analyzed games and a mountain of experience in Amazon Attack, he has become a walking encyclopedia of practical online chess. The sun may set on any given session, but it always rises again for the next game.