sotitkov

Overview

sotitkov is an online chess grinder with a simple operating system: open with 1.e4 every single time, answer 1.e4 with the French Defense, and never, under any circumstances, hurry. Games average close to 80 moves, wins average 75, and the whole operation has produced 896 wins, 768 losses, and 106 draws across nearly 1,800 blitz games. The record reads less like chess results and more like a cardio log, and the rating has climbed accordingly, peaking at 2443 (2026-09-30) in blitz.

The Five-Month Climb

In May 2026, sotitkov was a 1680-rated blitz player easing in with 64 games. By the end of June, after 431 games in a single month, the rating had cracked 2300. July and August were steady altitude training in the low 2200s, and then September arrived with 496 games, roughly 16 per day, and a surge that touched 2443 on the very last day of the month. October has been quieter and slightly more humble. The full journey, in convenient graph form:

As White: One Move, No Regrets

Sotitkov has played 874 games as White and started exactly 874 of them with 1.e4. That is not a repertoire, that is a vow. From there the road usually bends into the Closed Sicilian Defense (266 games, 53.8% wins), with the Scotch Game as the occasional scenic route:

The Caro-Kann Defense has been a friendly visitor at a 58.8% win rate, and the Scandinavian Defense largely cooperative. Then there is the Barnes Defense, 1.e4 f6, which opponents have attempted 42 separate times. Sotitkov has won 20 of those with zero draws. If 42 games of 1...f6 against the same person sounds like a coordinated cry for help, the scoreboard gently agrees.

As Black: The French Fort

Meeting 1.e4 with the French Defense is where the stubbornness really lives. The Exchange Variation alone accounts for 154 games, plus honest work in the Advance Variation, the Winawer, and the MacCutcheon Wolf Gambit. The Exchange is famously drawish, but at nearly 50% decisive wins here, that reputation has clearly not been consulted:

When the French needs a night off, the King's Indian Defense appears and quietly wins 65% of its 40 appearances, making it the most efficient weapon in the whole closet.

Playing Style: Marathon, Not Sprint

Most blitz players sprint. Sotitkov runs marathons. Nearly 80% of games reach an endgame, and the early resignation rate is a microscopic 2.6%, meaning a position is abandoned only after every alternative has been exhausted, and possibly not even then. The comeback rate sits at 84.5%, the win rate after dropping a full piece is about even, and a one-sided loss rate of 3.4% means opponents usually have to earn it the long way. The clock is part of the arsenal too: 252 wins have come by timeout. When material is not doing the talking, the queen is, with 1,576 checks delivered, more than any other piece. Seven games have also ended in stalemate, which is less a result and more a statement that the board ends when sotitkov says it ends.

Rivals and the Nemesis File

Every grinder has a nemesis, and sotitkov has at least two. alexxmajs has taken three wins and a draw from four meetings without ever losing one, which by blitz standards is a wall. salatas leads 3-1 in what must now feel like a personal series. On the friendlier side of the ledger, ypej and ahtam1 have each been swept 3-0, and hahaha111111112 has somehow finished 1-3, proving that laughter is not always the best defense.

Habits, Clocks, and One Daily Game

The win rate peaks at 7 pm, where it hits a monstrous 75%, and sags around lunchtime, so evening sotitkov is best appreciated from a safe distance. The tilt factor is an enviable 8, which explains how an eight-game losing streak, which did in fact happen, was apparently endured with the calm of a rainy Tuesday. As for daily chess, the complete career is one game, one loss, and a dignified silence ever since. Some players collect openings. Sotitkov collects reasons to stay in blitz.

Quick Facts

• Blitz record: 896 wins, 768 losses, 106 draws
• Preferred time control: blitz, enthusiastically and almost exclusively
• White win rate: 53.6%. Black win rate: 47.6%. First move as White: 1.e4, 874 times out of 874
• September 2026 workload: 496 blitz games, roughly 16 per day
• Longest winning streak: 9 games. Longest losing streak: 8 games. Emotional range: remarkably level
• 169 wins by checkmate, 252 by timeout, and a firm belief that a lost position is only mostly lost