Meet Safin Safarullakhan
Meet Safin Safarullakhan, known to online opponents as Safin_Safar. He is a FIDE Master with a bullet-first personality and a blitz rating that has touched 2572 (2026-08-19). His chess story is one of relentless grinding: he started near the bottom of the rating ladder in 2020 and turned himself into a titled player through volume, nerve, and a deep love of tricky openings.
From Triple Digits to FIDE Master
His first recorded online months were humble. In September 2020 his rapid rating dipped as low as 574, and his early bullet games hovered in the 900s. By November 2020 he was already showing signs of the fighter to come, winning 19 of 25 bullet games that month. From there the climb was steady and then spectacular.
shows the blitz line taking off in 2025, when he leapt from under 2000 to nearly 2500 within a few months.While bullet is his preferred time control, his blitz numbers are the ones that make opponents wince. He has reached 2572 (2026-08-19) in blitz and 2321 (2026-03-28) in bullet, while his rapid play has also crossed 2000.
Openings and Attitude
Open the database and one thing becomes obvious: Safin loves 1.e4. In his busiest year he played it in 344 games. His repertoire is not for the timid. He regularly steers games into the Blackburne Shilling Gambit, a sharp and trappy line where he scores an impressive 68.48% in blitz and 67.71% in rapid. He also enjoys the Amar Gambit with black, where his results are even better: 82.35% in rapid. Against the French Defense he favors the Exchange Variation, winning 83.33% of his rapid games there. When opponents try the Sicilian Defense, he is ready for everything from the Najdorf to the Dragon.
tells the same story: Safin thrives in sharp, offbeat, and underprepared territory.Rivalries on the Board
Safin is a creature of habit with opponents too. His most frequent dance partner is yesh1312, with 14 games and a narrow edge for Safin. Against AdvayD-inactive he has an even better record: nine wins in 14 meetings. If there is a perfect matchup, it is veersen_jain, who has yet to beat him in eight games. Every rivalry has a dark side: Lucas Rusu has beaten him eight times in ten meetings. The regular cast also includes labubu87 and darsh3676, with darsh3676 serving as a reliable source of points.
Quirks, Streaks, and 4 a.m. Magic
Dig into the numbers and Safin becomes a fascinating case study. He rides long games: his wins average 69 moves and his losses 90. He reaches the endgame in about 81% of games, and he rarely resigns early. His win rate after losing a piece is 56.42%, and his comeback rate is 80.81%, which means giving him material is rarely the end of the story.
- Longest winning streak: 14 games
- Longest losing streak: 11 games
- Best winning hour: 4 a.m., where his results are far above his daytime play
- One-sided loss rate: just 2.49%, so he almost never gets blown off the board
- Fairly balanced by color: 59.72% as White and 60.61% as Black
His numbers also show a player who saves his best for rated battles, with a 60.17% difference between rated and casual win rates. Perhaps the most fitting detail is that his most common checking piece is the queen. Safin Safarullakhan is a gambit lover, a bullet addict with a blitz ceiling, and a player who turned a 574 rating into a FIDE Master title through pure stubbornness and joy at the board.