Noam Sason: The FIDE Master Who Traps You Politely
Noam Sason, known to the online chess world as sn2022s, is a FIDE Master with a very particular set of skills: patience, endgame technique, and a suspicious fondness for openings that make engine users physically uncomfortable. With a preference for fast chess, Noam has quietly logged thousands of games, transforming from a sub-1000-rated newcomer in 2019 into a player whose peak 2872 (2026-08-17) speaks for itself.
His rating graph is less a curve and more a mountain range. Watch the ascent for yourself:
The Repertoire: Chaos, But On Purpose
Most FIDE Masters memorize theory until dawn. Noam looked at that plan and said "no thanks," building an opening arsenal around weapons that win games and bruise egos:
- The infamous Blackburne Shilling Gambit, played in over 700 games, is his signature move, a trap so classic that opponents keep falling for it a century later.
- The Amar Gambit, deployed 646 times, proves that "dubious" is just a synonym for "surprising."
- The Scandinavian Defense and the Hungarian Opening: Wiedenhagen-Beta Gambit round out a collection that values practical winning chances over theoretical purity.
It starts simply enough, then it stops being simple:
Rivalries and the talzak1 Incident
Every great player has a nemesis, and Noam has several. Smbat Lputian and keknoxs hold winning records against him, a fact that presumably haunts his pre-move routine. But chess is about redemption arcs, and against talzak1, Noam assembled the stuff of legend: a perfect record across 17 games. Seventeen wins, zero losses, zero draws. Not even a friendly stalemate. Ruthless.
The scoreboard against yoav_apt (27 wins, 8 losses) is similarly one-sided, suggesting some players simply opened the board, saw Noam's username, and considered it a warning label.
Playing Style: The Long Game, Played Fast
Despite loving speed chess, Noam's games run long. Averaging around 70-plus moves per game and reaching the endgame in nearly 70% of his battles, he is the rare blitz player who actually converts tiny advantages instead of pre-moving everything into oblivion. His comeback rate of nearly 79% means that dropping a piece against him is less a victory condition and more a scheduling inconvenience.
He also resigns early only about 1.6% of the time, which is chess-speak for "Noam will make you beat him properly, and you probably won't."
Legacy in Progress
From a 915-rated blitz beginner in May 2019 to a FIDE Master grinding toward the summit, Noam Sason is proof that you can climb chess's highest peaks while playing openings your opponent had to look up afterward. If you find yourself paired against sn2022s, here is free advice: accept no shilling gambits, count your pawns before accepting any gambit at all, and remember that a 78% comeback rate is watching you click that rook.