Rico B

Who Is Rico B?

Rico B, who plays online as RicoBS, is a chess player best described as an unstoppable force of nature with a mouse. Since showing up in 2021 with a bullet rating of 646 and a rapid rating of 788, he has played more than 50,000 games. Not 50,000 moves. Games. That kind of volume is less a hobby and more a lifestyle choice, and it has carried him from absolute beginner territory to a peak Blitz rating of 2270 (2026-10-12), which is the sort of number that makes opponents double check the pairing screen.

He prefers Rapid, which is a beautiful thing to say about someone whose game count is 29,000 or so bullet games and 20,000 blitz games. Rico is, in other words, a rapid enthusiast who keeps accidentally playing everything else.

From 646 to 2270

The early numbers are almost innocent. Early 2021: a bullet rating wandering between 646 and 987, a rapid rating creeping past 1,300. Then came the grind. 2022 was the year of the 1,700 game month. 2023 was the year of turning a 1,500 plateau into a 1,800 reality. And by 2026, Rico was regularly sitting above 2,100 in Blitz and Bullet, with his rating curve pointing stubbornly upward through the noise.

The scorecard reads roughly 25,000 wins, 22,000 losses and 2,400 draws across the three fast time controls. He has put together a winning streak of 17 games and a losing streak of 11, which is the record of someone who plays a lot of games with a lot of energy and absolutely no fear of the next one.

The Rapid Romantic

Here is the charming contradiction: Rico's preferred time control is Rapid, and his Rapid game count (about 1,300) is barely a rounding error next to his bullet habit. But when he does slow down, he is genuinely good. His Rapid peak of 1972 (2025-04-21) came in April 2025, and in Rapid he picked up a comfortable 60.98% win rate playing the Scandinavian Defense.

His Rapid repertoire leans into the slightly eccentric: the Pterodactyl Variation of the Modern Defense is his most frequent Rapid weapon at 143 games and a 52.45% win rate, with the Alapin Variation close behind. Fewer games, more personality, exactly as a preferred time control should be.

An Opening Menu Written in Five Minutes

Rico's first move is not a debate. In 2026 he played 1.e4 nearly 4,000 times and 1.d4 exactly twice. That is not a repertoire, that is a philosophy.

From there, the choices get wilder. The Alapin Variation against the Sicilian Defense is his single biggest weapon, with 3,773 games at 53.27% in Bullet. The Center Game appears nearly 1,900 times and wins 58.41% of the time, making it quietly his most profitable opening. The Caro-Kann Defense Exchange Variation shows up 1,370 times, the Pterodactyl 1,307 times, and the Benoni Gambit Accepted 1,299 times. Somewhere in there are the Barnes Defense, the Bird Opening Dutch Variation, and the Batavo Gambit, all of which suggest a player who treats opening theory like a suggestion rather than a rule.

Rivalries, Rivalries

Rico has played the same names enough times to know their habits. The most played opponent is carygrant2020, who has met him 29 times and leads the head to head 15 to 11, though Rico has fought back to a respectable 3 draws. The picture gets better against picotaco, whom Rico leads 18 to 8 over 27 meetings, and against schl3y, who has to be relieved it is only 21 games, because it is a 16 to 3 thrashing.

Other familiar rivals include idratherbeskiing67 and habakukk33, who have both made the pairing algorithm feel like a family reunion. Rico is a slightly bigger danger to lower-rated opponents, winning 61.85% of those games, while the strong ones keep him at 32.64%. The in-between games, where he belongs, are basically a coin flip.

A Die-Hard, a Comeback Artist, a 6 PM Specialist

Rico is not a frontrunner. He comes back to win in 82.4% of the positions where he has lost material, and he essentially never resigns early (1.62% early resignation rate). He wins 47.85% of games after dropping a piece. His average game reaches move 70, he spends 71.89% of his games in the endgame, and his first capture lands on average before move 5, which is what happens when you always play 1.e4.

He is a first to check monster, winning 56.87% of games in which he delivers the first check and 59.01% of them in 2021, and his Queen is by far his most common checking piece. The clock has moods too: he wins 54.89% of games around 18:00, his personal happy hour, and 52% on Saturdays. The 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. windows are best politely described as a 43% and 42% win rate, the chess equivalent of a warning label.

Quick Facts

• Peak Blitz: 2270, reached on 12 October 2026
• Peak Bullet: 2120, reached in June 2026
• Peak Rapid: 1972, reached in April 2025
• Most played opening: Alapin Variation against the Sicilian Defense
• Best opening by win rate: Center Game at 58.41%
• Longest winning streak: 17 games
• Favourite hour: 18:00, the golden hour
• First move of choice: 1.e4, and don't ask twice