Pieter Heesters: The 5 AM Bullet Storm
Pieter Heesters, known to the chess internet as ZZWW18, is a National Master with a serious love affair with the fastest format in chess. While normal people are sleeping, Heesters is usually awake, clicking out moves at warp speed and turning endgames into science projects. His stats point to 5:00 AM as his deadliest hour, which tells you all you need to know about his sleep schedule and his results. When the rest of the world is dreaming, he is busy converting equal endings into wins.
Heesters climbed from a promising but modest bullet rating in late 2018 to a spectacular 2971 (2025-08-14) peak in August 2025. That rise looks less like a learning curve and more like a rocket launch.
A Repertoire Built for Speed
If you sit across from him, expect the unexpected. As White, Heesters has leaned heavily on the English Opening and the Nimzo-Larsen Attack, mixing calm flank play with sudden bursts of violence. As Black, he is the most loyal customer of the Caro-Kann Defense, having played it nearly 2,000 times in bullet alone, and he happily wades into the Benko Gambit when he wants the game to get noisy.
His opening choices feed into a win rate that barely flinches regardless of color.
Rivalries at Warp Speed
No player is an island, and Heesters has built his own personal archipelago of rivals. His most frequent dance partner is Arnar Erwin Gunnarsson, who has faced him 320 times in a rivalry that reads like a heavyweight boxing trilogy stretched over a thousand rounds. He has also traded blows with volvo333 more than 200 times and even tested his skills against grandmaster Rogelio Barcenilla on over 100 occasions.
The Comeback Artist
Heesters is not just fast, he is stubborn. His comeback rate sits near 82 percent, and he wins more than 43 percent of games even after dropping a piece. He almost never resigns early, a quality that must infuriate his opponents. He is prone to the occasional cold streak, with a longest losing run of 15, but he balances it with a 25 game winning streak that shows what happens when he locks in.
In blitz he is no slouch either, peaking around 2730 (2022-06-14), but his heart clearly belongs to bullet. With over 22,000 bullet games logged and counting, Pieter Heesters is living proof that the clock is just another opponent, and usually one he beats.
Fast Facts
- Favorite time control: bullet, with more than 22,000 games and counting
- Longest winning streak: 25 straight wins
- Longest losing streak: 15, proving even machines have rough weeks
- Comeback rate: around 82 percent
- Best playing hour: 05:00, when the coffee and the c4 moves are both strong