Profile
Mark Smirnov, known on the board as Herzog2012, is an International Master (IM) and one of the most relentless online chess grinders on the site. His favourite battlefield is blitz, and the numbers back it up: nearly 4,800 blitz victories and a peak blitz rating of 3163 3163 (2026-08-24). He has been known to play hundreds of games in a single month.
Development
In 2019, Mark's blitz rating was still under 1200, but a steady climb turned a modest player into one of the most explosive online attackers. He raced past 2000 in 2021 and kept going, knocking on the 3000 door in 2025.
The curve tells the story:
Opening Hobbies
Do not expect a rigid repertoire. Mark plays everyone. He loves the chaos of the Philidor Defense as Black, while as White he will happily reach for the Nimzo-Larsen Attack. He has also invested serious games in the Scandinavian Defence, Czech Defence, Caro-Kann Defence, French Defense, and enough Amazon tricks to start a chess theatre.
Rivalries
Behind the scoresheet, his true rival is Ilan Schnaider. They have faced each other 66 times in blitz and bullet, with ilanschnaider enjoying a slight lead in a soap opera of tactics. Mark's top opponent record also includes marusyakholyavko (33 games) and metoooslow (46 games), but he always waves hello again.
Fighting Traits
Mark's endgame frequency is above 80%, and his average winning game lasts about 81 moves. He also posterizes his own comebacks: after losing a piece, he still manages to win about 54% of the time. Best time to catch him? After midnight his win rate jumps to 79%. Late-night chess is apparently a whole different beast.
Everything Else
With a grand total of 8,643 wins, 4,768 losses and 688 draws across all rated formats by the end of the dataset, Mark shows an uncanny ability to just keep pressing play. He prefers blitz, but bullet is where the speedster steals most of his wins.