NyanBun (Brendan Mak): The Bullet Chess Bunny
Brendan Mak, known to the leaderboard as NyanBun, has been hopping across online chessboards since February 2013. With over 4,000 rated games on record, the Bun is a certified bullet chess specialist: fast, scrappy, allergic to resignation, and statistically most dangerous at 11 PM. The calling cards here are an 87.6% comeback rate and an early resignation rate of just 3.59%, which is a polite way of saying that if you want to beat NyanBun, you are going to have to actually finish the job.
Life in the Bullet Lane
Bullet is home turf. Of the Bun's catalogue, roughly 2,400 games came at lightning speed, including a legendary December 2016 grind month featuring 296 bullet games. The peak came in August 2017, when the Bun hit 1794 (2017-08-04), capping a golden era that also produced a personal best in blitz that same month.
The streak ledger tells the whole story: a longest winning streak of 11 games, and a longest losing streak of 31, a slump that only a bunny with thick fur and a short memory could survive. Brendan also has the curious habit of winning slowly and losing quickly, with wins averaging about 75 moves against 65 in losses. Why take the highway when the scenic route is available?
The Opening Cookbook
As Black, the weapon of choice is the Alekhine Defense, played nearly 380 times in bullet alone, luring opponents into overextending before the counterpunch. As White, the signature is the gloriously named Colle Rhamphorhynchus Variation, an opening inspired by a pterosaur, which is exactly the correct amount of whimsy for a player called NyanBun.
- Alekhine Defense: the bread and butter, hovering around a coin-flip win rate over hundreds of bullet games.
- Amar Gambit: an opening that spells "Rama" backwards, which frankly suits a Bun. A perfect 4-0 record with it in rapid.
- Slav Defense: Bonet Gambit: a quiet bullet moneymaker at nearly 55%.
- QGD Chigorin, 3.cxd5: the blitz specialty, winning almost 58% of the time.
- Scandinavian Defense: excellent in bullet, a flawless 0-3 in rapid. Undefeated, technically, only in the sense that nothing has been won.
The ban list is equally telling: the Dory Defense (23% win rate) and the Amazon Attack: Siberian Attack (33%) are where wins go to hibernate.
The Nemesis Files
Every hero needs a villain, and NyanBun has a subscription plan. Across 209 meetings, armless_clock holds a jaw-dropping 196 wins to the Bun's 11, a rivalry so lopsided it could be studied by physicists. EvanCapel owns a friendlier but still punishing 136-9 edge in 150 games.
But the Bun bites back. cincailah_johann has been dispatched 25 times in 43 meetings, and nyudia_cant_chess has somehow lost to a bunny eight times, a username the scoreboard sadly confirms.
Form Guide: When to Catch the Bunny
Scouting report for future opponents, based on thousands of games:
- Do not play NyanBun at 11 PM (a 54.6% win rate) or after 9 PM in general. Do absolutely play at 7 PM, when the win rate collapses to a charitable 18%.
- Wednesdays are dangerous (50.9%). Tuesdays are the day to strike (40.6%).
- Rated games produce a 31-point swing over casual ones. The Bun flips a switch when points are on the line.
- Against lower-rated opposition the Bun wins two out of three; against higher-rated players, honesty prevails.
- The first capture usually waits until move six or seven, and the favorite checking piece is the rook, deployed 2,400-plus times like a librarian delivering shushes.
Career Arc: Rise, Slide, and Hop-Back
The journey started humbly in 2013, when young NyanBun lost a lot and learned faster. The 2015 to 2017 climb was the golden run, culminating in the August 2017 peak. Then came the 2018 dip, including a February stretch of 6 wins against 34 losses, followed by a 2020 wobble. Redemption arrived in September 2021 with a 6-1 rapid surge to a personal best, and the Bun returned again in 2025 with a winning June in blitz. An 74% endgame frequency means nearly every one of those games went the distance, which fits a player who simply refuses to leave the board early.
Legacy
Perhaps the funniest stat in the whole file: in thousands of analyzed games, Brendan has reportedly never delivered the final checkmate personally. Opponents simply look at the position, sigh, and resign. Winning without ever having to say checkmate may be the coldest flex in online chess, and it might be the most NyanBun thing of all.