Meet Benedict Smail
Benedict Smail, known online as Recombinant, is a National Master with a serious appetite for online chess. He is most at home in bullet chess, where the clock is short, the nerves are shorter, and every mouse click counts.
Career arc
Benedict entered the online scene in 2015 with a blitz rating near 2185 and slowly turned himself into a fixture in the 2300s. The climb continued in 2021, when he crossed 2400, and by 2022 he was a 2500 level player. In 2026 he reached a career best blitz rating of 2648, a number that fits nicely next to his National Master title.
Playing style
Benedict is a loyal friend to the King's Indian Defense and the Sicilian Defense, often steering into the Dragon and the Yugoslav Attack when he wants a fight. He rarely blinks first: about 85% of his games reach an endgame, and his decisive battles average more than 80 moves. His comeback rate sits at 86.57%, and he still wins 40.52% of the time after losing a piece. In other words, giving Benedict material is not a strategy, it is a dare.
Familiar foes
No one has crossed swords with Recombinant more often than Mark Kotliar, who has faced him 164 times. The series is nearly dead even: 70 wins for Benedict, 77 for kot60, and 17 draws. 2011KING is also a regular in the queue, with 134 games of shared history, most of them tense.
By the numbers
Benedict plays his best chess around 14:00, which is useful to know if you ever find yourself paired against him. His tilt factor of 16 suggests the emotional ride is real, and his early resignation rate of 19% means he generally makes opponents work for the full point. His favorite checking weapon is the queen, and the chart below shows just how steady his blitz climb has been.
captures the journey, while 2648 (2026-04-30) and 2506 (2022-05-10) mark the summits he reached along the way.