Onno Elgersma: FIDE Master of the Bullet Chess Arena
Onno Elgersma, known online simply as onnoelgersma, is a FIDE Master whose title from FIDE suggests serious, classical credentials, but whose statistics suggest a man who has married a one-minute clock and never looked back. Since first logging on in 2014, Onno has transformed himself from a bullet beginner into one of the most feared speed players you can be matched against, all while playing chess the way a marathoner runs sprints: fast, stubborn, and slightly unreasonable.
The Slow-Burn Climb
Every legend has an origin story, and Onno's begins with two bullet games in February 2014. He lost both, sitting at a rating of 889. What followed was one of the most patient ascents in online chess: quiet years in the mid-2010s, a breakout surge in 2019, and then a long, grinding march through the 2400s, 2600s and beyond, culminating in a bullet peak of 2889 (2025-11-11). The full journey is best told in pictures:
Along the way he stacked up nearly 5,000 bullet wins and a personal-best 30-game winning streak, a run long enough that opponents reportedly began scheduling meals around it. And for anyone wondering, he is no slouch in blitz either, peaking at 2807 (2026-01-18).
An Opening Repertoire Built for Speed
Onno's repertoire reads like the menu of a chess restaurant with a sense of humor. His bread and butter is the Caro-Kann Defense, which he has played in nearly 700 bullet games, usually grinding out wins move after patient move. Around that anchor float some genuinely exotic house specials:
- Caro-Kann Defense: the workhorse, with a win rate near 58%.
- Amar Gambit: played almost 400 times in bullet, because nothing disrespects an opponent's clock like starting with 1.Nh3.
- French Defense: where his win rate climbs above 62%.
- Scandinavian Defense and Nimzo-Larsen Attack: for opponents who were hoping this would be a quiet evening.
He also logs wins in something called the Rhamphorhynchus Variation, which sounds less like an opening and more like a Jurassic Park sequel. For the purists, here is the Caro-Kann Advance structure he has wielded from the black side more than 550 times:
The Legend of rootselrikkie
Somewhere on this very platform lives a player named RootselRikkie who has faced Onno an eye-watering 649 times. The head-to-head record currently stands at 445 wins for Onno, 168 for his intrepid rival, and 36 draws, making rootselrikkie statistically his most loyal sparring partner, his least quittable adversary, and possibly a figment of the matchmaker's imagination. Honorable mentions go to arthurm04, Roger Labruyere, and VlokFeest, against whom Onno has run up a near-perfect 37-4 score, which is frankly just showing off.
Style: The Marathon Man of Fast Chess
Despite living in bullet, Onno plays like a classical grinder. His endgame frequency sits above 82%, his average win lasts about 79 moves, and his early resignation rate is a comical 1.27%, meaning a lost position is treated as a mere suggestion. That stubbornness pays: he converts more than 87% of his comebacks and still wins over half his games even after dropping a piece. He finishes the job in every way imaginable, having racked up roughly 2,100 wins on time and nearly 1,800 by checkmate, which in bullet terms is called having options.
The 3 AM Problem
The data does not lie: Onno's best hour to play is 3:00 AM, a slot in which he is technically undefeated, and his win rate near 11 PM approaches 70%. Fridays are his best weekday and Saturdays his kryptonite, so if you must play him, aim for a Saturday morning before his coffee kicks in. With a low tilt factor, an iron constitution, and a FIDE Master title to his name, Onno Elgersma is living proof that serious chess and a fondness for bullet can coexist peacefully. Usually after midnight.