Zoran Stojcevski (zocpoc71)
A FIDE Master Built for Speed
Zoran Stojcevski, known to several thousand increasingly nervous opponents as zocpoc71, is a FIDE Master who treats fast chess less like a game and more like a cardio routine. Since first appearing online in 2017, he has played nearly 40,000 blitz games and over 3,000 games of bullet chess, which means somewhere out there is a version of Zoran who has never known a quiet evening.
The rise was quick even by his standards. His blitz rating sat at 1389 in May 2017 and crossed 2300 within two months. By April 2025 he had touched a peak blitz rating of 2832 (2025-04-21), and his bullet peak stands at 2576 (2025-01-06). You can watch the whole escalation below, preferably in fast forward, out of respect for the subject.
The Repertoire: Benelux Is a Variation, Not a Region
Zoran opens 1.e4 with the loyalty of a golden retriever. It has been played many thousands of times; e3 has appeared roughly a dozen times, almost certainly a misclick. As Black, his calling card is the Ruy Lopez, Classical Defense, Benelux Variation, a line with a name that sounds like a discount ferry service and a body of work exceeding 2,800 blitz games. The position, for the curious:
Opponents, in turn, keep serving him the Caro-Kann Defense more than 2,200 times in blitz alone, and he has logged well over a thousand games with the Blackburne Shilling Gambit, because what is fast chess for, if not chaos. His personal win rate by opening tells the story in chart form.
Rivals, Nemeses, and One Reliable Punching Bag
No biography of Zoran is complete without Alan Stein, the most frequent dance partner at 162 games and counting. The head-to-head record reads 64 wins, 85 losses and 13 draws, a deficit Zoran refuses to let arithmetic end. Nebojsa Djordjevic has clocked in 119 times, while Igor Teplyi holds the cherished role of designated punching bag at 52 wins against 29 losses. Every grinder needs one.
Style: Death Before Resignation
The statistics describe a man who simply does not stop. His endgame frequency is 84.58 percent, his average win lasts 76 moves, and his average loss lasts 84, meaning he loses the way an oil tanker turns: slowly, majestically, and on schedule. His early resignation rate is a microscopic 0.24 percent.
- Comeback rate of 87.69 percent, including wins in over 40 percent of games where he had already dropped material.
- Rook is his most common checking piece, with more than 41,000 career rook checks. The rook is basically an employee at this point.
- Only 114 career wins by checkmate; most opponents resign first, and the rest simply run out of time.
- Ten career stalemate draws, each one a collector's item.
- Undefeated in rapid at 13-0-0, a record he protects fiercely by almost never playing rapid.
The Human Behind the Clock
Zoran's peak performance hour is 21:00, making him one of the few players whose rating genuinely improves after bedtime. His tilt factor of 16 marks him as remarkably calm for someone who has played 40,000 clock-burning games, and his results suggest he is at his most dangerous when nothing is actually at stake. His longest winning streak is 13 games, his longest losing streak is 16, and the chess gods have clearly decided this is fair.
The Zoran File
- Title: FIDE Master
- Preferred time control: Bullet
- Signature opening: Ruy Lopez, Classical Defense, Benelux Variation
- First move: 1.e4, no negotiation
- Most played opponent: aliencowboy, 162 games and no peace treaty
- Trademark: long endgames, late rook checks, and total refusal to resign