Vache Hovakimyan: The Grinder With a Comeback Gene
FIDE Master Vache Hovakimyan, known online as VacheH009, is a player who treats every chess game like a long conversation and refuses to say the ending too early. Though his preferred time control is Rapid, his Blitz history reads like a decade-long construction project, built brick by brick, rating point by rating point.
The Long Ascent
In 2017, Vache began with four-figure ratings and a lot of ambition. By 2026, he was knocking on 3000 in Blitz with a peak of 2986 (2026-05-06). He simply never stopped climbing, and the chart below tells the story:
Along the way he strung together 49 straight wins. That streak matters because it came after the kind of rough patches that make most players log off. His longest losing streak was 13 games, but he treated it as a footnote, not an obituary.
An Opening Laboratory
Vache has built his repotoire around flexible, fighting setups. He is comfortable in the Sicilian Defense, especially the Closed and Accelerated Dragon lines, and he can also grind inside the Queen's Gambit Declined for hours. Throw in the Nimzo-Larsen Attack and you get a player who is genuinely hard to prepare for.
His endgame appetite is just as strong. Many of his games reach the endgame, and his decisive battles often run around 75 to 80 moves. He will happily trade pieces, simplify, and then slowly squeeze the life out of the position.
Rivals and 5 A.M. Chaos
His most frequent rivalry is with ghazaryan005, who faced Vache nearly 100 times and drew 42 of those meetings. If you want to see Vache at full power, look for his meetings with ghazaryantchess, a rivalry that turned decidedly one-sided with 63 wins against only 2 losses.
Vache also has a comeback rate of nearly 80 percent, and even after losing a piece he still wins about half the time. He rarely resigns early, almost never gets blown off the board, and his best time of day is 5 a.m. If you meet him then, do not expect mercy.
The Verdict
Vache Hovakimyan is a FIDE Master who plays like a patient predator. Whether he is in Rapid or Blitz, White or Black, favorite or underdog, he finds a way to stay in the game and turn the ending into a lesson.