Grandmaster, Streamer, Clock Wrangler
Cem Kaan Gokerkan, known to his online audience as ckgchess, is a FIDE Grandmaster and streamer with an unstoppable appetite for fast chess. His profile may say Rapid is the preferred time control, but his record in Blitz and bullet tells the real story: more than 6,800 combined wins in those two formats and a peak Blitz rating of 3076 (2026-08-31). It all started in 2016 with a modest rating and grew into a 3,000-plus online presence. At one point he won 24 games in a row, and losing a piece only seems to wake him up.
A Repertoire Built on e4
As White he almost always opens with 1.e4, and as Black he is happy to turn the board into a fight. His most trusted opening is the Sicilian Defense; he has faced the Alapin Variation over and over again and has racked up a healthy plus score in both blitz and bullet. The Caro-Kann Defense and Scandinavian Defense are frequent guests in his games, and he is equally comfortable with the flexible Modern.
If there is a secret to his success, it might be pressure. Across more than 12,000 analyzed games he delivers around 3.2 checks per game, often with rook or queen, and he wins a remarkable share of games after he checks first.
Rivalries and Late Night Grinds
As a streamer, Gokerkan turns marathon sessions into entertainment. No opponent has tested him more often than Deniz Ozen, who has faced ckgchess over 280 times. That rivalry has been a genuine tug of war. Against Nurgyul Salimova the story is completely different: a dominant 62 wins against 11 losses.
His stats suggest the best time to face him is never, especially around 1 AM. That is when the Grandmaster is most dangerous. Comebacks are part of the brand: he recovers from losing positions about 85% of the time, and his longest winning streak reached 24 games. Late night, fast hands, tricky tactics, and a stream chat along for the ride.