bora temel, aka mrborges
bora temel is a blitz warrior who has been making the chess clock nervous since 2010. Under the handle mrborges, they have built one of the most durable online repertoires in the game: nearly 85,000 rated games, a love for fast time controls, and a willingness to play basically any opening in the book, and a few that are still trying to get into the book.
The numbers tell a story of constant motion: long winning streaks up to 25 games, losing streaks up to 17, and a blitz draw rate so low that a draw feels like a rare museum piece. This is a player who comes to fight.
For the full ride, let the chart do the talking:
Shape-shifting openings
Early in their career, mrborges was a 1.e4 romantic, but by 2011 the queen's pawn became the daily driver. Over time the repertoire swung back to 1.e4 and settled into a long relationship with the Sicilian Defense, including the Alapin, Closed, and Taimanov lines. When the board gets quiet, they are just as happy to enter a King's Indian Defense or annoy everyone with the Bird Opening.
The opening menu is broad, but the pattern recognition is real:
Grinder, comeback artist, friendly rival
mrborges reaches the endgame in about four out of five games and has a comeback rate above 80 percent. Even after losing a piece, they still win half the time, which is either excellent technique or a very optimistic clock management strategy. Their best hour on the board is 11:00, so maybe schedule your blitz date before lunch.
The longest-running soap opera in their career is against trood, a rivalry spanning 217 games. mrborges leads that series 136 wins to 80, with one handshake along the way. After thousands of battles, that is the kind of scoreline that quietly says: see you tomorrow for another 20 games.