Chess Player Profile: rajan-gautam
Meet rajan-gautam, a senior project and tech wizard who channels a passion for strategic conquest from Gantt charts to the checkered battlefield of 64 squares. Like most great tacticians, Rajan discovered that the board is not so different from a project plan — one false move and the whole schedule crashes, but with far fewer stakeholders nagging.
Rating Highlights & Style
- Rapid Rating Peak: An impressive 961 achieved in May 2025, proving Rajan’s ability to think on their feet faster than most can deliver status reports.
- Blitz Peak: Credited with a max blitz rating of 484 earlier in 2024 — not world-class grandmaster material but enough to intimidate your casual opponents and your weekend sync-up meetings.
- Playing Style: A balanced blend of patience and aggression, with an average of about 50 moves per win. Known for an endgame frequency of roughly 50%, Rajan is comfortable grinding out a win in the late stages — much like working through an endless bug list.
Favored Openings
Like any seasoned tech lead, Rajan sticks to a few trusted frameworks — on the chessboard, these come as favorite openings:
- Van 't Kruijs Opening: The bread and butter offensive, played over 285 times in blitz and 355 in rapid with a roughly 50% win rate — solid, reliable, and slightly quirky.
- French Defense Variations: A dashing approach to defense with multiple sub-variations bringing flexibility and flair, especially the Knight and Normal Variations where win rates hover between 38% to 72%, proving Rajan’s adaptability.
- Reti Opening: A sly and somewhat under-the-radar choice, favored for its strategic depth and surprise element.
Competitive Record & Psychology
With nearly as many wins as losses across all formats, Rajan’s win/loss record suggests a player who’s not afraid to risk it all for glory — or at least for that sweet feeling of outmaneuvering “the algorithm” of an opponent’s mind. Their comeback rate of 57.17% signals a fighter who rises from setbacks and turns tides faster than you can say "scope creep."
Fun fact: Rajan’s best time of day to play is 6 PM, coincidentally the perfect hour to close the laptop and claim victory — whether in a project or on the board. And despite a tilt factor of 8 (chess players, the struggle is real), they keep a cool head and rarely throw pieces in frustration.
Memorable Moments
Rajan recently delivered a clinching checkmate against tdrsani in a rapid game on May 19, 2025 — a masterclass in patience and calculation, finishing in classic French Defense style. The game featured intricate queen maneuvers and rook positioning that would make any seasoned coder proud of such elegantly buggy behavior.
On and Off the Board
Outside their DevOps duties, Rajan’s chess journey reflects the meticulousness and resilience needed to manage projects with multiple moving parts and evolving deadlines. Whether the battle is fought with deadlines or chess clocks, Rajan strategizes for success, keeps a love for the game’s complexity alive, and occasionally sacrifices pawns just for some harmless fun.
Keep an eye on this player; the next big checkmate might come just when you least suspect it.
Quick summary
Nice streak of sharp, tactical wins in blitz — you’re comfortable creating immediate threats, jumping knights into the enemy camp, and using open files to bring rooks and the queen into decisive action. At the same time, a handful of very short losses and several games ending by resignation or time indicate recurring issues with time management and early move selection under pressure.
What you’re doing well (Blitz strengths)
- Active piece play: you frequently activate knights and rooks (knight jumps to g5/e6 and rook swings) which creates concrete tactical chances.
- Exploiting open files and weak back ranks — you convert open lines into decisive pressure quickly.
- Willingness to simplify when winning: you trade into positions that make the opponent’s counterplay disappear.
- Good opening variety — you play many systems confidently (e.g., French Defense appears in your recent wins).
Main areas to improve
- Time management in blitz — several losses were very short or ended by timeout/abandon. Avoid getting into severe time trouble early.
- Early move accuracy — keep an eye on the first 8–12 moves; a small error there often snowballs in 3–8 minute games.
- Tactical oversights in complex middlegames — when multiple captures are possible, pause and check hanging pieces and forks.
- Endgame basics and king safety — avoid leaving back-rank weaknesses and watch for simple tactical refutations when pushing pawns near your king.
Practical, short-term fixes (use in your next 10 blitz games)
- Adopt a 10–15 second “standard think” for each move until move 10. This prevents early blunders and reduces time scrambles.
- Create a 2–3 move opening cheat sheet for the lines you play most (typical pawn breaks, a natural square for knights, and a simple plan if the opponent plays one less common move).
- When you see a candidate capture or sacrifice, run a 2-second check for immediate tactics (is the capturing piece hanging? any forks or checks for the opponent?).
- When up material or with a clear attack, simplify by trading queens or closing lines to reduce your chance of blundering in time trouble.
Training plan — daily and weekly drills
- Daily (10–20 minutes): 12 tactical puzzles focused on knight forks, discovered attacks and back-rank motifs.
- 3× week (30 minutes): 5+0 or 3+2 practice games where you enforce the “10–15s standard think” until move 10.
- Weekly (one session): review 2 recent losses — step through move-by-move and write down the exact moment the evaluation swung.
- Monthly (review): consolidate an “opening plan” PDF with typical pawn breaks, one bad move to avoid, and a plan for the middlegame for your top 3 openings.
Concrete checklist for your next session
- Before each game: 5 deep breaths and decide on your opening plan (2 lines max).
- Move 1–10: enforce the 10–15s rule; write nothing down but stick to it.
- If you reach time under 30s: switch to “safety mode” — avoid speculative sacrifices, exchange pieces, simplify.
- After each lost game: save the PGN and mark the critical blunder move for later review.
Example games to review (playback)
Win vs ourkingssss — good demonstration of using piece activity to force mate in the corner.
- Replay:
Short loss — useful to review the start and avoid very quick defeats.
- Replay (loss):
Suggested study topics tied to your games
- Back-rank mate patterns and how to create luft for your king — 10 puzzle examples.
- Typical knight outposts and arrivals (g5, e6) — study classic motifs and one illustrative game per opening.
- Blitz time management — sample games where the winner kept steady time and forced resignation in time trouble.
Next steps — three things to do today
- Do 12 targeted tactics (focus: forks, discovered attacks, back-rank mate).
- Make a one-page opening plan for your main line (e.g., French Defense or your highest-played system).
- Play a 5+0 session with the 10–15s rule for moves 1–10 and review any game lost in under 5 minutes.
Want me to review a specific game?
Paste a PGN or pick one of the games above and I’ll give a short move-by-move annotated post-mortem focused on critical moments and alternative lines.
🆚 Opponent Insights
| Most Played Opponents | ||
|---|---|---|
| abhinavray710z | 5W / 4L / 0D | View Games |
| sachindevya | 0W / 8L / 0D | View Games |
| Budi50 | 1W / 5L / 1D | View Games |
| sonali14roy | 6W / 1L / 0D | View Games |
| brisfia | 1W / 5L / 0D | View Games |
Rating
| Year | Bullet | Blitz | Rapid | Daily |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 846 | 1036 | 400 | |
| 2024 | 330 | 449 | 863 | 400 |
Stats by Year
| Year | White | Black | Moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 555W / 480L / 29D | 511W / 544L / 20D | 62.8 |
| 2024 | 335W / 301L / 15D | 313W / 300L / 21D | 50.6 |
Openings: Most Played
| Blitz Opening | Games | Wins | Losses | Draws | Win Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amar Gambit | 337 | 169 | 159 | 9 | 50.1% |
| Caro-Kann Defense | 302 | 154 | 145 | 3 | 51.0% |
| Australian Defense | 185 | 96 | 83 | 6 | 51.9% |
| London System: Poisoned Pawn Variation | 175 | 84 | 84 | 7 | 48.0% |
| French Defense | 171 | 86 | 80 | 5 | 50.3% |
| Amazon Attack | 157 | 77 | 75 | 5 | 49.0% |
| Amazon Attack: Siberian Attack | 55 | 30 | 24 | 1 | 54.5% |
| Caro-Kann Defense: Exchange Variation | 27 | 11 | 16 | 0 | 40.7% |
| East Indian Defense | 22 | 13 | 9 | 0 | 59.1% |
| Caro-Kann Defense: Classical Variation | 17 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 58.8% |
| Rapid Opening | Games | Wins | Losses | Draws | Win Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amar Gambit | 430 | 224 | 197 | 9 | 52.1% |
| French Defense | 279 | 151 | 121 | 7 | 54.1% |
| Caro-Kann Defense | 110 | 49 | 59 | 2 | 44.5% |
| Australian Defense | 97 | 51 | 40 | 6 | 52.6% |
| Amazon Attack | 82 | 38 | 44 | 0 | 46.3% |
| London System: Poisoned Pawn Variation | 68 | 41 | 25 | 2 | 60.3% |
| Amazon Attack: Siberian Attack | 60 | 34 | 25 | 1 | 56.7% |
| Barnes Defense | 58 | 25 | 32 | 1 | 43.1% |
| Czech Defense | 40 | 17 | 20 | 3 | 42.5% |
| Barnes Opening: Walkerling | 40 | 20 | 20 | 0 | 50.0% |
| Daily Opening | Games | Wins | Losses | Draws | Win Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elephant Gambit | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Amar Gambit | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Bullet Opening | Games | Wins | Losses | Draws | Win Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amar Gambit | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 50.0% |
| French Defense | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0% |
🔥 Streaks
| Streak | Longest | Current |
|---|---|---|
| Winning | 9 | 0 |
| Losing | 12 | 2 |