Your weekly digest of the sharpest tactics, biggest upsets, and most grueling marathons.
Across 7,736 games this week, the highest share of decisive results came from the club ranks around 2000. Among the elite, the draw rate roughly doubled.
▲ Decisive-game rate by rating band (7,736 games). Decisiveness peaks around the 2000 club and drops among the elite, who drew about a third of their games.
The club ranks were the most decisive this week. In the 2000 to 2199 band, 81.9% of games ended with a winner, the highest rate of any tier. Climb to 2600 and it falls to 65%, with about a third of games ending in a draw.
Time controls impact: Online titled blitz ran 89.7% decisive; over the board it was 69.6%, a reminder that fast online play yields far more winners.
How White cracks the center open early and plays for the initiative. An interactive study of White’s winning methods.
Read the full breakdown →| Player | Games | Score | Actual Rating | Performance Rating | Rating Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Van Foreest,Lucas | 9 | 7.0 | 2531 | 2740 | 209 |
| Kuru,Atilla | 26 | 17.5 | 2476 | 2605 | 129 |
| Muzychuk,A | 19 | 12.0 | 2522 | 2640 | 118 |
| Terry,R | 380 | 272.0 | 2508 | 2625 | 117 |
| Droin,Augustin | 14 | 8.5 | 2501 | 2604 | 103 |
| Edouard,R | 20 | 12.5 | 2538 | 2637 | 99 |
| Tsydypov,Z | 110 | 79.0 | 2507 | 2603 | 96 |
| Zhao,Chenxi | 22 | 14.5 | 2514 | 2610 | 96 |
| Finek,Vaclav | 18 | 13.0 | 2584 | 2679 | 95 |
| Lazavik,Denis | 278 | 208.5 | 2619 | 2707 | 88 |
| Dau Khuong Duy | 152 | 108.5 | 2519 | 2604 | 85 |
| Ganguly,S | 10 | 6.5 | 2568 | 2653 | 85 |
| Zilka,S | 9 | 5.5 | 2516 | 2601 | 85 |
| Wan Yunguo | 27 | 14.5 | 2503 | 2586 | 83 |
| Batsuren,Dambasuren | 23 | 12.0 | 2504 | 2580 | 76 |
| Player | Games | Score | Actual Rating | Performance Rating | Rating Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kuzmin,Roman | 18 | 13.0 | 2293 | 2630 | 337 |
| Heimisson,Hilmir Freyr | 9 | 8.0 | 2310 | 2646 | 336 |
| Bespalov,Elisei | 5 | 4.0 | 2224 | 2556 | 332 |
| Gireman,J | 21 | 16.0 | 2307 | 2621 | 314 |
| Makkar,Rajat | 5 | 4.5 | 2440 | 2752 | 312 |
| Baskakov,Egor | 11 | 7.5 | 2215 | 2526 | 311 |
| Luger,Sam | 9 | 5.0 | 2221 | 2522 | 301 |
| Boswell,Jacob Connor | 8 | 8.0 | 2258 | 2544 | 286 |
| Aayush,Bhattacherjee | 7 | 5.5 | 2381 | 2664 | 283 |
| Kokoszczynski,Jan | 11 | 7.5 | 2231 | 2507 | 276 |
| Ma,Lin | 5 | 2.5 | 2211 | 2469 | 258 |
| Sheremetev,Vladislav | 11 | 7.0 | 2227 | 2481 | 254 |
| Mescheryakov,Artem | 9 | 5.0 | 2239 | 2493 | 254 |
| Koziak,V | 9 | 5.5 | 2321 | 2569 | 248 |
| Kot,Emanuel | 11 | 9.0 | 2313 | 2552 | 239 |
| Player | Games | Score | Actual Rating | Performance Rating | Rating Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akbas,Kaan | 16 | 9.0 | 815 | 2326 | 1511 |
| Li,Yuhan | 9 | 5.0 | 1522 | 2244 | 722 |
| Chen,Jonathan | 26 | 12.0 | 1752 | 2353 | 601 |
| Leung,Kwan Yat Calix | 7 | 1.5 | 1536 | 2103 | 567 |
| Ligotnis,Maksims | 5 | 2.5 | 1864 | 2369 | 505 |
| Agar,Garig | 6 | 2.0 | 1632 | 2130 | 498 |
| Wayile,Jialade | 10 | 4.5 | 1813 | 2294 | 481 |
| Agarwal,Amartya Shiv | 8 | 2.5 | 1557 | 2034 | 477 |
| Dobrovolskaya,Polina | 5 | 2.5 | 1778 | 2254 | 476 |
| Bai,Moxuan | 8 | 6.0 | 1816 | 2284 | 468 |
| Sun,Jihan | 5 | 2.5 | 1835 | 2299 | 464 |
| Fraga,Heitor Carneiro | 8 | 5.5 | 2098 | 2539 | 441 |
| Kobak,Polina | 11 | 6.5 | 1986 | 2426 | 440 |
| Zhang,Haoxu | 7 | 4.0 | 1921 | 2358 | 437 |
| Amangeldinov,Alkey | 11 | 7.0 | 1872 | 2298 | 426 |
Explore the highest-performing openings across different Elo tiers and time controls.
| Player | Games Played | Score | Avg Elo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rustemov,A | 434 | 262.0 | 2525 |
| Bortnyk,Olexandr | 385 | 271.5 | 2604 |
| Terry,R | 380 | 272.0 | 2508 |
| Smail,Benedict | 326 | 133.0 | 2077 |
| Martinez Alcantara,Jose Eduardo | 324 | 223.5 | 2649 |
| Evans Quek,S | 319 | 112.5 | 2280 |
| Rohwer,P | 306 | 116.0 | 2005 |
| Sarana,A | 303 | 224.0 | 2666 |
| Furman,Eugene | 303 | 76.0 | 0 |
| Ashraf,Artin | 300 | 199.5 | 2470 |
| Pribelszky,Bence | 295 | 157.0 | 2381 |
| Brown,Akeem | 293 | 127.0 | 2065 |
| Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | 286 | 191.0 | 2600 |
| Ambartsumova,K | 283 | 150.5 | 2385 |
| Ocampos,I | 279 | 119.0 | 2262 |