Paul Sanchez: The Blitz Marathoner
Paul Sanchez, known online as paulgalas, is a relentless blitz battler. His preferred time control is blitz, and his play reflects a rare appetite for volume and endurance. Since his first recorded games in late 2016, Sanchez has turned the three minute pool into a nightly marathon, playing thousands of games across blitz, bullet, and rapid. He rarely shies away from long fights, and his statistics show a player who is comfortable navigating complex endgames and grinding out wins deep into the game.
Playing Style
Sanchez is an endgame enthusiast. Endgames appear in roughly 85% of his games, and his average decisive contest stretches beyond 79 moves. He likes to keep the tension alive, and he delivers more checks with the queen than with any other piece. When he lands the first check of the game, his winning rate climbs to 54.4%, a sign that he uses initiative well. His competitive stubbornness is also remarkable: his comeback rate sits near 88.6%, and even after losing a piece he still wins a startling 45% of the time.
- Longest winning streak: 15 games
- Longest losing streak: 13 games
- Favorite time to play: early morning hours
- Endgame frequency: 84.7% of games
Signature Repertoire
As Black, the Czech Defense is his clear identity. He has played it thousands of times in blitz, mostly against 1.e4, and it appears in his rapid games as well. As White, Sanchez prefers practical setups such as the Sicilian Defense Closed Variation, the King’s Indian Attack, and the unusual Colle Rhamphorhynchus Variation. He also has deep experience against the Caro-Kann Defense and the French Defense, making his opening repertoire broad but recognizable: solid, flexible, and aimed at avoiding early theory wars.
A typical Czech Defense setup for Sanchez might begin like this:
Rivalries
Sanchez has built several durable online rivalries. His most frequent opponent is libertatea, who has faced him 67 times in blitz. Sanchez holds a narrow edge in that series with 39 wins, 22 losses, and 6 draws. He has also traded many games with other regulars like soloctavian, sentul_player15, ernestoguevaralynch, and benecyrill, making his profile feel more like a community fixture than a solo grinder.
Growth and Milestones
Sanchez has climbed steadily from a 1500-level bullet player in 2016 to a formidable 2600-plus force a decade later. His peak blitz rating reached 2771 (2026-06-09), while his bullet rating peaked at 2681 (2025-03-02). In his first rapid outings, he also touched 2270 (2021-06-09). The 2023 season was a turning point: his bullet rating jumped into the 2600s and his blitz play became more consistent against high-rated opposition. By 2026 he was regularly playing 400 to 900 blitz games per month, a workload few players can sustain.
By the Numbers
His blitz rating trajectory over the years tells the story of a player who builds slowly, then keeps climbing.
His opening results also reveal where his strongest scores come from.