Razvan Groza: Bullet Grinder and Household Menace
Razvan Groza plays chess the way a slot machine plays its owner: relentlessly, at high speed, and mostly at night. A devoted specialist in bullet chess, Razvan has stacked up thousands of online games across blitz, rapid, and bullet since first appearing on the scene in 2020, and he has climbed from humble sub-1000 beginnings to a peak above 2000 in rapid. But the truly remarkable thing about Razvan is not the volume of games. It is who he plays them against.
The Family Feud
Razvan's two most frequent opponents share his surname, and the results are not pretty for them. Against catalin_groza, he has played 81 games and won 65 of them, with only 10 losses and 6 draws. His record against sebastian_groza is an equally ruthless 43 wins against 7 losses across 52 games. That is not a rivalry, that is a dynasty with a body count.
To keep things honest, there is a limit to the Groza supremacy. nimzoman13 has handed Razvan 18 losses in 34 meetings, a genuine thorn in his side and living proof that blood is not thicker than a bad position.
Opening Repertoire: Trap Connoisseur
Razvan is a lifelong 1.e4 player, opening with the king's pawn in the overwhelming majority of his white games. His signature weapon is the Blackburne Shilling Gambit, a notorious trap that has appeared in more than 600 of his games across all time controls. The pitch is simple: dangle a pawn, let the opponent grab it, then win material while they are still patting themselves on the back.
The classic trap in action:
Beyond the trap, his repertoire has real range. Rapid games featuring the Philidor Defense have produced a superb 69% win rate, while his experiments with the Amar Gambit and the Amazon Attack reveal a man who believes the best opening is one your opponent has never seen, usually for good reason.
Style: The Merciful Resigner
Razvan is a firm believer in the mercy rule. Roughly 68% of his lost games end in resignation, often before the opponent has had time to fully savor the moment. When he does stick around, however, he is dangerous: his comeback rate sits near 80%, and he wins nearly half his games even after dropping a piece.
- Around 78% of his games reach the endgame, so he is comfortable grinding long positions.
- His average winning game lasts about 70 moves, while his average loss drags on for 83. He fights hardest when things are already lost.
- His favorite checking piece is the queen by a landslide, with more than 7,400 queen checks delivered over his career.
- His longest winning streak is 14 games, a run that presumably triggered a family intervention.
The Midnight Bullet Machine
The numbers from September 2026 are almost hard to believe: 942 bullet games in a single month, which works out to roughly thirty games a day, every day. His peak in the format reached 2072 (2026-09-25), and the trajectory tells the story of a player who turned a lockdown hobby into an obsession.
There is also a clear pattern to when he plays: his win rate at 22:00 is a scorching 75%, the best hour of his day. At 23:00 it drops to zero, suggesting his chess brain has a strict bedtime and enforces it without negotiation.
Quick Facts
- Preferred time control: Bullet, with hundreds of games logged every month at peak form.
- Most played opening: The Blackburne Shilling Gambit, his loyal trap of choice.
- Signature stat: A 65-10 record against his most frequent opponent, catalin_groza.
- Known weakness: The 23:00 hour and anyone named nimzoman13.
- Career philosophy: Resign early, come back strong, check with the queen, repeat.