Carlsen almost exclusively plays Lichess.org games with 60 seconds on his clock and an increment of 0 seconds returned on each move. They don’t call it ‘Bullet Chess’ for nothing. It requires lightning quick reflexes and extremely strong postional familiarity.

You’re most likely to encounter and get demolished by Carlsen on a Monday.

Carlsen has played on Lichess under many different amusing usernames, but his DrNykterstein account had been his main one since 2019.

The width of the bars indicates the number of times played. While Carlsen appears to consistently win games as white, regardless of opening, his win rate with black is more variable. If you want to beat him when he’s playing black, stick to a main line and don’t let it turn into an Uncommon Opening, or his deep strategic and tactical skills will give him the edge.

The width of the bars indicates the number of times played. While Carlsen appears to consistently win games as white, regardless of opening, his win rate with black is more variable. If you want to beat him when he’s playing black, stick to a main line and don’t let it turn into an Uncommon Opening, or his deep strategic and tactical skills will give him the edge.

Even against some of the world’s strongest chess players, Carlsen has an edge. Andrew Tang is a prolific bullet player, and is considered by some to be the best in the world. Alireza Firouzja, aged 18, has been ranked 3rd in the FIDE world chess rankings since May 11, 2022, and is the youngest player ever to have an official FIDE rating of 2800.

The width of the bars indicates the number of games played against players in the respective ELO range (different to the histogram, which shows the range of ELO ratings for all unique opponents Carlsen has played). His most challenging games occurs with players in the 3200+ rating range, a very small group.