Late Bloomer, Weird Openings
Rien Davids, known online as Rien2021, joined the chess server in mid-2022 and found a natural home in Daily chess, the patient format that rewards marathon thinking. In more than 3,000 Daily games, Rien has become a familiar face in queues, never in a hurry and rarely resigning early.
The Daily Grind
Daily is where Rien truly lives: over 3,000 games, more than 1,200 wins, and a rating journey that has gone from an 800 start, through rookie slumps, up to a peak of 841 (2024-03-15) in early 2024, and back again. Rien once strung together a 25-game winning streak, which is no small feat at any level.
Offbeat Openings
Rien does not chase the theoretical main lines. As White, Rien overwhelmingly opens with d4 in recent years, often steering into London System setups. But Rien's true love is the Amazon Attack, which appears hundreds of times across the games, along with its Siberian Attack branch. On the Black side, Rien leans on the Czech Defense and the Scandinavian Defense, while also regularly facing the Amar Gambit and assorted Barnes Openings. If an opponent wants a quiet, theoretical game, Rien is the wrong player to invite.
Rivalries and Nemeses
No biography is complete without the long-running wars with baldjeremy. The two have battled 159 times, with Rien holding a razor-thin edge: 79 wins to76, plus four draws. And then there is Ivo Maris,the opponent who owns Rien completely: all 23 meetings ended in losses. Some rivalries are built on mutual respect; others are built on therapy bills.
Fight to the Finish
Rien rarely taps out early: only about14% of losses are early resignations. Rien has survived a 32-game losing streak, yet still maintains a comeback rate above62%, turning lost positions into wins. The patience even shows up in the score sheet: 104 timeout wins versus110 checkmate wins, so opponents who run out the clock are just as common as those who get mated. Against lower-rated opposition, Rien wins about70% ofthe time, so lower-rated players should bring a calculator.
The best hour to catch Rien? Around6am, when the win rate peaks and the coffee is strong.