A One-Move Empire
Yashas Devappa is the kind of FIDE Master who can make one opening feel like an entire personality. Playing as Yashasdevappa, this online chess machine has built a giant career around the Nimzo-Larsen Attack, leading off with 1.b3 in the overwhelming majority of games. It is a voluntary, cheerful, slightly unsettling way to say "I have my own opening tree." It seems to work.
The blitz road runs long and steep: from a rough early 1300 in late 2018 to a peak above 2800 by 2026. If that kind of b3-fueled ascent looks like mischief, the chart below is just a long line of it.
Repertoire of a Deliberate Rebel
When Yashas has the white pieces, the b-pawn comes out with ritual devotion. The Nimzo-Larsen Attack is the headline act, but the deeper repertoire also includes a love for the Scandinavian Defense and the Alekhine Defense from the black side. It is a mix of slightly unusual openings, long games, and the distinct feeling that Yashas would rather make the position weird than walk on well-trodden e4 paths.
Yashas also leans toward bullet as the preferred time control. That fits the style: a big b3 motto, a fast clock, and enough game volume to fill a small library. The blitz record especially has marathon volume, with win streaks of 14 straight games and endless queues of rivals.
Rivals, Comebacks, and Finish Lines
No player plays 20,000 rated games without collecting nemeses. Yashas has shared the server with Nebojsa Djordjevic in more than 100 games, living through a nearly balanced 46 wins, 40 losses, and 15 draws. Alan Stein appears nearby as a long-time friend with 86 games, and Khatanbaatar Bazar regularly shows up ready to test the b3 experiment.
The personality in the data is hard to miss: an early loss of a piece does not end the story, because the comeback rate is very high and the endgame frequency passes 83%. Those long games are not just grind. They are an deliberate ride through discomfort, sudden attacks, and sometimes a lot of timeouts. The record says it all: give Yashas a lost-looking position and the response is usually to go silent, calculate, and show up somewhere unpleasant for the opponent.