Konstantin Semianiuk (Kostya26): A National Master of Bullet Chaos
Konstantin Semianiuk, better known online as Kostya26, is a National Master with a serious love for the bullet time control. While other titled players treat bullet as a warmup, Konstantin treats it as a battleground, piling up more than 21,000 rated bullet games and winning nearly 10,000 of them. His peak bullet rating of 2789 (2025-08-19) places him in elite internet speed chess territory, a number that would make many titled players nervous.
Career Highlights
Kostya's bullet rating journey has been a wild ride, with explosive spikes during lockdown chess and again in 2025. He is also a formidable blitz player with a peak rating of 2568, but his heart clearly belongs to the one-minute arena.
- Over 21,000 rated bullet games with nearly 10,000 wins.
- Peak bullet rating of 2789 in August 2025.
- Longest winning streak of 21 consecutive bullet games.
- A true marathoner: 1,959 bullet games in March 2020 and 1,962 in February 2021.
- A perfect 7-0 record in his small sample of rapid games.
Signature Openings
Konstantin is no one-trick pony. As White he frequently opens with 1.b3, steering the game into the Nimzo-Larsen Attack, and he has thousands of games in a London System poisoned-pawn line. As Black, his weapon of choice is the Sicilian Defense: Accelerated Dragon, alongside the Closed Sicilian and a fearless appetite for rare sidelines like the Australian Defense and the Amar Gambit.
A Rivalry for the Ages
No opponent knows Kostya better than Snowflake, who has faced him 399 times in bullet. The rivalry is as tight as the clocks they play under, with Kostya holding a slim lead of 211 wins, 172 losses, and 16 draws. After hundreds of battles, these two have practically memorized each other's mouse clicks.
Playing Style and Quirks
Kostya is a grinder. His average win lasts 81 moves and his average loss 77 moves, an eternity in bullet terms. He has a comeback rate above 86 percent and wins nearly half of his games after losing a piece, so opponents should never celebrate too early. Most of his games end by timeout rather than checkmate, which is his polite way of reminding everyone that in bullet chess, the clock is the real king.
He plays his best chess at 8:00 AM, and his 22-point rated-versus-casual win difference shows he saves his best moves for rated games. He may tilt now and then, but with a current 6-game winning streak, Kostya always bounces back to keep the bullet board shaking.