Volume, Volume, Volume
Ratko Novak, who plays online as NovakRatko, is a FIDE Candidate Master with an unusual motto: more games. The available record holds 12,950 rated encounters, and Blitz does the heavy lifting with 12,010 of them. In January 2024 he played 1,224 Blitz games, which works out to roughly 41 games a day, and in April 2025 he crossed 1,100 again. He is not shy about losing either. His longest winning streak is 12 games, and his longest losing streak is 14, proof that his competitive heart never takes a day off.
A Rocket Ship Made of d4s
Even though his preferred time control is listed as Rapid, Ratko treats Blitz like a training camp and Rapid like an exam. The rapid rating chart starts near 1,576 in October 2023 and climbs to 2,513 by October 2025, a rise that looks less like a rating curve and more like a launch sequence.
tells the story of a player who improved by refusing to log off. The same dedication pushed his Blitz peak to 2,663 and his bullet ceiling to 2,557.As White, Ratko is a loyal soldier of the queen pawn. In 2024 alone he opened with 1.d4 exactly 2,953 times, while every other first move combined appeared just 34 times. The Slav Defense is his favorite battleground when he has the white pieces, and against 1.e4 he almost always reaches for the Scandinavian Defense with Black, where he has recorded more than 2,000 Blitz games. He does not flirt with openings. He camps inside them until one of them surrenders. His overall fighting personality is visible in
.Rivals, Nemeses and Revenge
No serious online chess career is complete without familiar avatars appearing in the queue. Against ClassAct01, Ratko has played exactly 50 games and split them almost perfectly down the middle: 22 wins, 22 losses and 6 draws. Against Daniel Lowinger the story is more painful, with only 7 wins against 21 losses, which suggests a personal opening theory problem rather than a lack of effort.
Ratko also has a stubborn streak. His listed comeback rate is 87.8 percent, and only a tiny slice of his games end in early resignation. He gives up material and keeps playing, loses 14 in a row and still returns the next day. That mix of volume, rage and resilience makes him one of the most entertaining grinders on the server.