Vlad-Victor Barnaure at a Glance
Vlad-Victor Barnaure, known to the online chess world by the cryptic handle fMCMT, is a FIDE International Master whose natural habitat is the blitz board. With more than 31,000 games of blitz chess on record, he has turned fast chess into an endurance sport, and possibly into a cardiovascular event.
- Title: International Master (FIDE)
- Blitz census: 14,016 wins, 15,389 losses, and 2,329 draws, a nearly perfect portrait of a grinder's life
- Signature weapon: the London Poisoned Pawn Variation
- Special skill: surviving positions that other people have already mourned
Blitz Career Highlights
- Debuted on the blitz ladder in October 2017 around 1897 and climbed all the way to 2819 (2026-07-11) by July 2026
- Longest winning streak: 13 games. Longest losing streak: also 13 games. The chess gods believe in symmetry.
- Delivered checkmate 183 times while being mated only 23, usually resigning long before the humiliation is finalized
- Lost on time 626 times, a monument to his complicated relationship with the resign button
The full arc, 2017 to 2026, in one picture:
Opening Repertoire: The Poison Specialist
With White he began as a d4 traditionalist before drifting into Nf3 move-order mischief. His most bankable weapon is the Przepiorka Variation, 599 games at a 53.4% score, supported by the King's Indian Larsen Variation and a Colle line poetically named Rhamphorhynchus, after a pterosaur, because apparently regular opening names were not enough. With Black he is a devoted Caro-Kann Defense player, over 700 games strong, with Modern Defense experiments on the side. His true calling, however, is the London System Poisoned Pawn, played 1,285 times at blitz. Choosing an opening with the word Poisoned in the name more than a thousand times says something about a man, and the something is probably "commitment."
Exhibit A, the famous queen raid:
Playing Style: Endgame Grinder, Flag Chaser
Statistically he is an endgame creature: about 86% of his games reach one, his first capture typically lands around move 8, and his favorite checking piece is the humble rook, with over 24,000 rook checks to his name. He wins 42% of the games in which he drops a whole piece, and only 0.36% of his losses are truly one-sided. His tilt factor is a zen-like 13 out of 100, which is fortunate, because he is currently riding a nine-game losing streak. This would be a bad week to request a rematch.
Rivalries and Foes
Every serial grinder collects rivals. Against Mihael Ankerst he has played 83 games and actually leads 45 to 37, an admirable result against an opponent named after a side dish. Nebojsa Djordjevic has been the nemesis, winning 46 of 75 meetings, while the Rogelio Jr Antonio series, 16 wins against 38 losses, is best described as a character-building experience. He has also marched into the Berlin Defense Berlin Wall 301 times for a 35.9% score, proving that some walls are famous only because people keep running into them.
Life Off the Opening Book
The body clock matters. His peak hour is 16:00 with a 47% win rate, his 3:00 AM games are a humanitarian crisis at 33%, and Sundays are statistically his day of rest, whether he planned it or not. He is noticeably deadlier in casual play, outperforming his rated results by more than 50 points, making him a friendly-game assassin and a rated-game mortal. As for the other time controls: exactly one bullet game, a win, leaving him with a perfect bullet career, and two rapid games split down the middle. Some players collect trophies. Vlad-Victor collects unfinished business.