Meet Nicolai Maxime Østensen
Nicolai Maxime Østensen, better known on the board as NicolaiMaxime, is a FIDE Master who treats the fast clock like an old friend. If you see his name join a queue, expect Bullet to be the venue. His numbers show an unmistakable love for speed chess, and his career graph from shy breaking-900 player to genuine 2900-level speedster is the kind that makes anyone check the server clock twice.
He entered online Bullet play around 2017 with modest marks and later began climbing at a ridiculous pace. The upward sweep of his ratings is best summed up by this chart: . He pushed his peak Bullet rating all the way to 3001 (2026-09-10), while his Blitz peak reached 3001 (2026-09-13) a few weeks earlier. Not bad for someone who likely learned his first checkmate on a browser tab.
The Repertoire of a Tree Shaker
Dane to most conventional wisdom, NicolaiMaxime does not walk the straight and narrow opening path. In Bullet, he has used the Nimzo-Larsen Attack more than 400 times as White, and he gives the Barnes Opening: Walkerling a win rate that often creeps north of 70%. When he wants a more real fight, the Caro-Kann Defense anchors much of his response set, while in Rapid his success against the Sicilian Defense pushes close to 66%.
Nicolai is also an unreformed counterpuncher. His stats reveal a victory coming back from bad positions around 82.7% of the time, and even after losing a piece he still converts nearly half of his games. The man simply does not mind getting outgained at the start if the ending is still up for grabs. His games often stretch late, with a typical win or loss lasting more than eighty moves, so beware the opponents who only prepared a sharp memory opener.
Rivals, Grudges, and Late Night Little Sessions
The online ladder gains a legendary touch when you play one person over and over. Nicolai's records include a 77 game rivalry with Aman Hambleton that has tipped many players the other way. By contrast, against cr16sd he built a 45 to 8 record, and against annards he remains breathtaking: 25 wins and only one loss.
Curious about his best time of day? The data says 04:00, which suggests a Bullet specialist who is equally happy at dawn, during lunch break, or in the middle of someone else's legitimate sleep cycle. He also has a longest winning streak of 20 games, a longest losing streak of 13 games, and enough energy to log hundreds of games in a single week.