Ziad Ali Zaidamin (ZiadAli2010)
Ziad Ali Zaidamin, better known to his victims as ZiadAli2010, is a rising online chess player with a simple philosophy: why think for minutes when you can panic in seconds? The 2010 in his username is either a birth year or a personal challenge, and if it is a birth year, the rest of the bullet chess world would like a moment to lie down.
The bullet chess Specialist
While other players dream of quiet, classical maneuvering, Ziad lives on the clock. He started his bullet journey in early 2024 scraping around the mid-1400s, then proceeded to grind thousands of lightning-fast games on the way to a 2481 (2026-02-05) peak in early 2026. Notably, he once followed a 13-game losing streak with a 15-game winning streak, which is the chess equivalent of crashing your bike, dusting yourself off, and immediately entering the Tour de France.
Over a thousand of his bullet wins have come by timeout, meaning a huge share of opponents did not lose to a move. They lost to the clock. Deeply relatable, and deeply ruthless.
Repertoire: A d4 Loyalist
Ziad's opening repertoire is a monument to consistency. In 2025 alone he opened with 2,282 queen's pawn games against just 73 games of e4, a level of loyalty most people cannot manage with a favorite pizza topping. His signature weapon is the Australian Defense with 1.d4 c5, played in hundreds of games and holding a healthy win rate, while as Black he takes no prisoners with the Pterodactyl Variation of the Modern Defense, scoring around 65 percent in bullet play.
Facing the Sicilian Defense positions as Black and a steady diet of Slav and Queen's Gambit Declined structures as White, Ziad keeps things solid at home and spicy away.
Playing Style and Mindset
- Endgame machines welcome: roughly three out of every four of his games actually reach an endgame.
- Resilient to a fault: his comeback rate sits near 84 percent, and he almost never resigns early, so hanging a piece against him is merely the opening act.
- Marathon runner: his wins average about 80 moves, so if you are losing to Ziad, cancel your evening plans.
- Calm under pressure: with a tilt factor of just 13, he stays cooler than the losing side of most bullet games deserves.
- Queen enthusiast: more than 7,000 checks delivered, and the queen did most of the paperwork.
Notable Rivalries
Every hero needs recurring characters. Ziad's most played opponent is didith_81, across 17 encounters with a solid 11-4-2 edge for Ziad, see didith_81. Even more remarkable is his record against janisnacloseacc: a flawless 15-0, a rivalry with all the tension of a checklist, see janisnacloseacc. Meanwhile egycigany keeps things honest at 7-5, see egycigany.
Quick Facts
- Best hour to face him: never. His win rate at 15:00 sits at a suspicious 100 percent.
- Best day of the week: Saturday, where he plays like he slept in and ate a good breakfast.
- Worst hour: 22:00, when the clock strikes ten and his pieces apparently do too.
- Daily chess record: 22 wins, 5 losses, 1 draw, mostly accumulated during breaks from forgetfulness.
- Career total: over 6,600 analyzed games and counting, most of them played at a speed that would make a hummingbird ask him to slow down.