The Man, The Myth, The Clock Eater
Ken Timur Salim, known to the chess world as HakoneRider, is a player who treats opening theory like a buffet and the clock like a personal enemy. Since 2009 he has played nearly 10,000 rated games, mostly at bullet and blitz pace, yet lists Daily as his preferred time control. That is the first clue: Ken likes to win quickly, but he also enjoys having three days to think about why he hung a piece.
Career Arc
What started as a 1,200 bullet rating in June 2010 became a long, winding grind to expert territory. Ken's bullet rating climbed to a peak near 1,910, his blitz topped out at 1,918, and his rapid reached 2018 (2025-07-13). He crossed 2,000 in rapid during the mid-2020s, proving that the engine he secretly feeds is not just for analysis.
If you want the visual version, imagine a rating graph shaped like a roller coaster that mostly goes up, with a few water slides of tilt on the side.
Opening Laboratory
Ken does not believe in quiet moves. With White he almost always plays 1.e4, then tries to drag opponents into chaos. With Black he is famously at home in the Alekhine Defense, and he has played it over 1,300 times in bullet alone, winning 73% of the time. The Sicilian Defense is his next favorite refuge, especially when he needs to counterattack. He also has a soft spot for weird opening gambits: the Elephant Gambit, the Amar Gambit, and the Blackburne Shilling Gambit all appear in his reports with win rates north of 70%. In rapid, his results with the Elephant Gambit are a perfect 9/9.
Here is how a typical Alekhine Defense outing starts, if you want to see what 1,300 repetitions looks like:
Rivalries and Rivalries
No rival has faced the HakoneRider more than hyrizal. They have battled 346 times, with Ken holding 215 wins, 129 losses, and two draws, a rivalry so intense it should have its own documentary. Then there is byonreach, who forced 27 draws in 123 games, making him the human equivalent of a brick wall. Ken also owns a ridiculous 85-to-1 record against nickmirante if you scroll deep enough into his history.
His win rate against lower-rated players is a brutal 78.75%, while against higher-rated players it drops to 42.39%. Translation: he will happily farm 1400s, but a 1900 can still make him sweat.
Psychological Profile
Ken never met a losing position he did not believe he could rescue. His comeback rate is 68.16%, and after losing a piece he still wins 69.99% of the time. He also wins roughly two-thirds of his games when he delivers the first check, and he delivers the first check over 62% of the time. His longest winning streak is 56 games; his longest losing streak is 12, which presumably triggered a very short meditation session.
A fun fact: more than half of his wins come by timeout. He is not always the better chess player, but he is almost always the better clock player.
The Daily Life
Despite all that bullet and blitz violence, Ken's preferred time control is Daily. He has only 13 daily games on record, but his peak Daily rating is 2058, which suggests that when he slows down, he becomes even more dangerous. He also plays best at noon, with a win rate of 85.88% at 12:00, and on Wednesdays and Sundays he is nearly untouchable. Do not play him at 23:00 unless you enjoy disappointment.