Mikhei Navumenka: The Bullet Artist
Mikhei Navumenka, better known online as Geroinia, is a FIDE Master who treats bullet chess the way most people treat breathing: constantly, competitively, and preferably before anyone notices. Since first appearing on the ladder in December 2023, Geroinia has amassed over 1,100 bullet games, outscoring the field 593 wins to 437 losses, with 82 draws existing mostly to annoy everyone involved. There is also a blitz peak of 3008 (2026-08-22), because apparently breaking 3000 in a faster format was just a hobby.
The Climb
Geroinia debuted around 2545 in bullet, spent 2024 and 2025 grinding patiently into the 2700s, then detonated in July 2026 with a 137-game sprint that carried the rating toward 2964 (2026-07-30). On the graph it looks less like a rating curve and more like a ski jump.
Repertoire: The Quiet Menace
Geroinia opens with 1.Nf3 with the frequency of a nervous tic, more than 650 times in tracked play. That hides a host of systems: the King's Indian Attack (a monstrous 72% score as White in bullet), the cheeky Amar Gambit (nearly 69%), and the obscure Hungarian Opening: Wiedenhagen-Beta Gambit, which collects wins at 73.9% in blitz. With Black, the French Defense and the punchy Alekhine Defense do the heavy lifting. A typical session begins like this:
Rivalries and Nemesis Corner
No biography is complete without Jose Diaz Velandia, the most frequent dance partner at 42 games and a dead-even 20-18-4 scoreline, essentially a chess marriage. rookendingmaster is something else entirely: a human stress toy, losing seven and drawing three without ever winning. Then come the exorcists. Alien_Gambit_Rook leads the haunting at 1-7-3, while Prraneeth Vuppala (2-8-1) and Ali Sebbar (3-8-0) also hold spare keys to the house. Every 11-game winning streak eventually meets an 8-game losing streak. Chess keeps receipts.
Style: Grind, Then Grind Again
Roughly 90% of Geroinia's games reach an endgame, and wins average a lung-busting 84 moves. The defining trait is resilience: an 87.64% comeback rate, and Geroinia still wins more than half the games where a whole piece goes missing. One-sided defeats happen to other people, about 0.69% of the time. When a position truly dies, though, the resignation arrives early and without ceremony, and the next game begins roughly two seconds later.
The Body Clock
Geroinia's win rate swings wildly with the hour, and the data reads like a bedtime negotiation:
- Best day: Wednesday, a 57.3% win rate
- Best hours: 3 PM (60.87%) and the 2 AM witching hour
- Forbidden zone: 6 AM, a win rate of zero and a polite plea for sleep