Mikael Agopov: The Molotkh File
Mikael Agopov, better known to the blitz queues as Molotkh, is an online chess grinder whose username sounds like it should come with a hazard label. The play matches the branding: volatile for opponents, remarkably stable for himself. A Blitz specialist first and foremost, he has won 292 of 452 rated blitz games, with a peak of 2629 (2026-10-12), and keeps a respectable rapid hobby on the side, where he holds an 18-9-2 record.
The Climb
Molotkh debuted in May 2016 rated 1313 and treated that number as a mild suggestion, winning 26 of 27 games in June alone and touching 1962 by July. Then came the vanishing years: a four-game cameo in 2020, a 147-game grind through 2021, a brief whisper in 2022, silence. He returned for real in late 2025, and by October 2026 the comeback was complete. The whole saga fits in one picture:
Repertoire: Two Faces of Every Opening
Few players see both sides of an opening as often as Molotkh sees the Caro-Kann Defense, scoring about 67% with it as Black and nearly as well against it as White, which raises the question of whether anyone alive has encountered more Caro-Kanns per calendar year. Against the Sicilian he rides the Najdorf Variation from either color, owns a perfect 7-0 score with the Cobra Variation as White, and has a blunt message for opponents trying the trendy Amazon Attack: he wins 77.8% of those games, so please keep trying.
His 2021 d4 phase featured 74 consecutive queen's pawn openers, including an 85.7% score in the Grunfeld Exchange. Since 2026, it has been e4 almost every single time.
Style: The Man Who Never Resigns
- Early resignation rate: 0%. Molotkh does not resign. Ever.
- One-sided losses: 0%. Every defeat was earned the hard way.
- Comeback rate: 88.1%. If the position looks bad for him, he has heard that story before and usually rewrites the ending.
- Endgame frequency: 82.7%. Games reach the endgame constantly, and his average win lasts about 70 moves of patient squeezing.
- Longest winning streak: 26 games in a row.
Rivals and Receipts
Every grinder has a nemesis, and Molotkh's is Tommi Luukkonen, who leads their ten-game rivalry 6-4. Nearly everyone else has paid the toll: perfect 4-0 records over ernestozuluagaa and cavaloboi, plus a 3-0-1 edge on Ulrich Schulze. Only generationalfumbler314 holds an unwanted 0-2-1 grip on him, which clearly calls for a rematch.
Quirks and Fun Facts
- Wednesdays are his kryptonite at 52.6% wins, while Sundays go far better at 74.7%.
- His perfect hour is 22:00 with a 100% win rate, and 17:00 is nearly as kind at 80%. His one recorded 4 AM experiment did not go well, and the lesson appears to have stuck.
- Favorite method of psychological damage: the queen check, delivered 378 times and counting.
- He has exactly one career stalemate and would prefer that nobody bring it up.
- 63 wins have come by flag, proving the grind works on the clock as well as the board.
Final scouting report: schedule around Wednesdays, prepare something honest against the Caro-Kann, and whatever happens, do not wait for a resignation.