Ислом Синдаров: The Blitz Rocket
Who Is Islom Sindarov?
Ислом Синдаров, known to the online chess world as sindarovjr, is a FIDE Candidate Master whose rating graph looks less like a chess career and more like a rocket launch. He entered the online scene in 2022, and within a few years his bullet rating touched 2944 while his blitz game climbed past 2758. If you see his username in a queue, expect a fight.
Career at a Glance
His preferred battlefield is Blitz, and the numbers back up that choice. From a modest 1300 blitz starting point in mid-2022, he pushed his way to a peak of 2758 (2025-06-03), while his bullet rating reached 2944 (2026-08-18). The chart below tells the story of a player who simply refuses to stand still.
His blitz rating exploded past 2600 in early 2025, and he has stayed above that level ever since. He collects rating points the way other players collect opening traps.
Playing Style
- He fights to the finish. Nearly 83% of his games reach an endgame, and his average decisive game runs past move 79.
- He is a comeback artist. His comeback rate sits above 85%, and he still wins almost 59% of games after losing a piece.
- Draws are a rare species in his games, especially in Blitz, where he wins roughly twice as often as he draws.
- He likes to strike first, delivering the first check in 54% of his games and generating about three checks per game.
- Monday is his best day with a 74% win rate, and 09:00 is his magic hour with an 81% win rate. Tuesday, on the other hand, is his danger zone.
Signature Openings
With the white pieces, sindarovjr leans on flexible setups like the King's Indian Attack and the English Opening. With black, he is at home in the Modern Defense and regularly dives into the Sicilian Defense, especially its closed and positional branches.
His Blitz results in the Closed Sicilian are particularly scary, with a 77.78% win rate. He also experiments with offbeat lines, including something the database calls the Rhamphorhynchus Variation, which sounds like a dinosaur that attacks from the flank.
Rivalries
Nobody has faced sindarovjr more than Lucas Do Valle Cardoso, who has battled him 28 times and holds a narrow edge in one of online chess's quietest rivalries. Against Shivam Pant, Sindarov has the upper hand with 15 wins. And if you want a truly one-sided score, check his perfect record against GrindingToGlory: 10 wins and 0 losses.
You can relive a sample of this rivalry here: View Game.
Quirks and Numbers
- Longest winning streak: 18 games. Current winning streak: 2 and counting.
- His tilt factor is 7, but he balances it with a 60% win rate against higher rated opponents and a 71% win rate against lower rated ones.
- His favorite checking piece is the queen, with 1,444 queen checks in tracked games.
- His first capture arrives around move 9, which suggests he spends the early game plotting rather than grabbing.