Joël van der Werf

Joël van der Werf

Joël van der Werf, known online as notJowol98, plays chess with the confidence of someone who has clearly read too many opening traps and decided to keep all of them. The account suggests a player who is most at home in Rapid, yet the game history also shows a serious appetite for faster time controls, where speed, sharpness, and a willingness to make life uncomfortable for the opponent matter just as much as theory.

The style is playful, tactical, and a little bit unapologetic. There is no sign of a player who simply wants to shuffle bishops until the opponent makes a mistake. There is also a strong hint of someone who enjoys punning on names, especially when an opening is obscure enough to sound like a medieval sea battle.

• Preferred time control: Rapid
• Account handle: notJowol98
• Opening temperament: sharp, practical, and occasionally bizarre
• Favorite battlefield: the middlegame, where small advantages become big headaches

Opening Personality

On paper, this looks like a repertoire built for fun. In practice, it looks like a repertoire built for trouble. The Caro-Kann Defense appears as one of the more dependable black weapons, which makes sense because it is solid enough to survive and spicy enough to invite sharp play. Alongside it, the Amar Gambit brings out the less predictable side of the character: when the position gets safe, make it unsafe.

The repertoire also includes lines such as the Colle[redacted] Rhamphorhynchus Variation, the Amazon Attack, the Australian Defense, and the Diemer-Duhm Gambit. That is not a chess repertoire. That is a museum of openings that make opponents ask very quietly whether they should have chosen a different game.

• The Caro-Kann Defense provides structure with a smirk
• The Amar Gambit provides chaos with a wink
• The Amazon Attack provides aggression with a pirate flag
• The Colle System provides a familiar path for players who want to stay in the fight without becoming too exotic

Playing Style

notJowol98 does not appear to be the type to play for a draw from the very first move. The profile suggests a player who is comfortable in long games, often willing to trade into complicated positions rather than retreat into a safe corner. That kind of chess can be exhausting for the opponent, because it is not enough to simply survive the opening. The middlegame has to be handled carefully, and even then the endgame may still arrive like an unexpected invoice.

There is a strong tactical flavor in the account. The player seems to understand that in online chess, a small inaccuracy is not always a small inaccuracy. Sometimes it is a door. Sometimes it is a hole. Sometimes it is a full ambush, complete with queen check and no invitation to think for more than two seconds.

• Comfortable with active play
• Willing to enter messy middlegames
• At home in positions where pieces are doing dangerous things
• Unlikely to make the opponent feel safe unless the score demands it

Matchups and Rivalries

Every player has a set of regular opponents, and this account has several. One of the more notable repeated matchups is with Alexandra, against whom the record is lopsided enough to suggest that some games may have gone exactly according to plan while others simply did not. The presence of a perfect head to head record makes this one of the cleaner, more satisfying rivalries in the profile.

Another familiar name is Hannah Sayce, with whom the record is much more contested. That kind of repetition usually means one of three things: the games are interesting, the games are annoying, or both are true at the same time. In chess, both are often the same truth wearing different clothes.

• Alexandra: a clean, confident benchmark
• Hannah Sayce: a repeated encounter with plenty of back and forth
• Not_Chickenman: another recurring fixture in the account history

Rapid and the Longer Time Control

The account is described as preferring Rapid, which gives the player enough time to punish mistakes without having to think for an entire evening. That is a useful sweet spot. It allows preparation to matter, but it also leaves room for the kind of practical decision making that separates a decent game from a memorable one.

In Rapid, the player can afford to choose a sharper setup, test the opponent with a gambit, and still have a few seconds left to recover from any small miscalculation. It is a time control that rewards both patience and nerve, and this account suggests that notJowol98 is willing to use both.

• More time than Blitz means more room for planning
• Less time than Classical means fewer chances to lose the plot
• Sharp openings become more effective when the opponent has to react under pressure

Sample Positional Spirit

Not every game follows the same script, but the account suggests that a typical position can be imagined in broad strokes. White has developed quickly, the center is contested, and one side is trying to turn a small structural or tactical advantage into something real. The kind of chess seen here often begins with something simple, such as 1. d4, and then quickly becomes anything but simple.

A compact illustration might look like this.

In a position like that, the game has not yet announced itself, but it already has the ingredients. Development, central tension, and a few questions that the opponent will have to answer sooner than later.

Performance Notes

The statistics point to a player who has spent enough time at the board to develop a real sense of where the account sits. There are long stretches of solid results, periods of very high activity, and enough repeated opponents to form a small but recognizable circle of online chess relationships. That is often how strong online accounts develop: not through one dramatic surge, but through a steady accumulation of games, adjustments, and the occasional opening surprise that goes exactly as intended.

• Strong overall volume suggests genuine experience
• A preference for practical play shows up in the openings
• Repeated opponents indicate a stable online environment
• The account balances sharpness with enough structure to remain dangerous

What to Expect in a Game

If you are sitting across from notJowol98, the most honest advice is this: do not assume the game will stay quiet. The opening may look ordinary for a move or two, but the account suggests a player who is more than willing to steer things toward complications. If you are comfortable in sharp positions, that is good. If you are not, this is the kind of opponent who makes you find out quickly.

At its core, this is a profile of a chess player who values personality as much as technique. The openings are a mix of respectable and riotous, the style is active, and the overall impression is of someone who would rather win a complicated game than agree to a draw in a boring one.

• Expect practical play
• Expect sharp choices
• Expect the occasional opening that looks strange before it looks dangerous
• Expect the middlegame to be the real test