Paul Szuper

Who Is Paul Szuper?

Paul Szuper, known to the chess world as Maddcold, is a blitz obsessive whose online journey reads like a fever dream. He first appeared in June 2017 with a promising 1426 blitz rating, lost ten straight games, and then did something remarkable: he kept playing. By August of that same year he was already touching 2022, and he never really stopped. His early defeats were the opening chapter of a transformation that would eventually produce one of the most active and intimidating blitz profiles on the platform.

• Username: Maddcold
• Primary habitat: Blitz, with occasional Rapid and Bullet cameos
• Signature weapon: 1.d4 and an unshakable will to hit rematch

The Blitz Grinder

The numbers behind Maddcold are staggering. Across his career he has logged more than 56,000 blitz games, with a record of 23,405 wins, 28,785 losses, and 4,614 draws. That is not the profile of a cautious tournament player. It is the profile of someone who genuinely loves the three minute scramble, the flag hunt, and the joy of playing one more game after one more game.

His longest winning streak reached 24 games, while his longest losing streak stretched to 17, proof that he is equally comfortable surfing euphoria and agony. His blitz rating climbed from triple digits to a career peak of 2866 (2026-03-23), a number that would make many titled players sweat.

A Repertoire Built on One Move

Ask most strong players about their opening preparation and you get a seminar. Ask Paul Szuper and the answer appears to be "1.d4, and then we figure it out." His yearly statistics show d4 as his first move in thousands of games, with the occasional 1.Nf3 to keep things lively. As White he regularly reaches the Nimzo-Indian Defense and the Queen's Gambit Declined, and he handles both with the same cheerful disregard for draw offers.

As Black, he is a devoted believer in the Philidor Defense, with more than 7,000 games in that opening alone. The Philidor is often mocked as passive, but in Maddcold's hands it becomes a battlefield. He also has a soft spot for the Australian Defense and the Barnes Defense, which shows a willingness to play absolutely anything if the clock is ticking.

Familiar Foes

Grinding thousands of blitz games means you get to know people. No one knows Maddcold better than Nebojsa Djordjevic, who faced him 194 times. Their rivalry is remarkably balanced: 80 wins for Paul, 91 for dimailuka, and 23 draws. Khatanbaatar Bazar has also been a recurring nemesis, winning 104 of their 167 encounters, while Paul found a far more comfortable matchup against biostatistician, whom he leads 58 to 36.

These long-running feuds give his play a personal dimension. A chess server can feel anonymous, but after nearly 200 games against the same username you start to sense a personality behind the moves, even if that personality is just someone who also refuses to go to bed.

Mind and Manner

Maddcold's psychology is as interesting as his opening choices. His comeback rate sits at 82%, and he wins nearly 39% of games even after losing a piece, which suggests he views a material deficit as a suggestion rather than a verdict. He performs best around 11:00, and his tilt factor is a manageable 17, meaning even his bad days are not catastrophes.

His games tend to be long, averaging more than 80 moves per win, and he revels in endgames, reaching them in roughly 82% of his outings. The rook is his favorite checking piece, and he lands the first check more often than his opponents do. In short, Paul Szuper is a relentless, resilient, slightly chaotic blitz artist who treats every new game as a fresh chance to prove that volume, grit, and a well loved d4 can carry you very, very far.