# Ashraf Nearly Perfect in Chess.com's 3+0 Blitz Sprint
FM Artin Ashraf came within one game of a flawless performance in Chess.com's 3+0 Thursday event, winning ten straight games before stumbling in the final round. The near-perfect run underscore his current form in rapid blitz territory, where three minutes per side leaves no margin for calculation errors.
Ashraf's ten-game streak was the headline story from September 17's event. That kind of consistency in 3+0 demands precise opening knowledge, pattern recognition, and the mental stamina to stay sharp through extended sequences. One slip late matters more in blitz than slower time controls, which is exactly what happened when his streak ended. Still, the run establishes him as a force in Chess.com's competitive rapid blitz ecosystem.
GM Jeffery Xiong matched Ashraf's intensity throughout the event. Xiong's comfort in fast time controls has always been a defining characteristic of his play, and this performance reaffirmed why he regularly competes at the highest levels of online blitz. His aggressive tendencies, usually a liability in classical chess, become an asset when the clock ticks down to minutes.
GM Alexey Sarana rounded out the three-player dominance. Sarana has spent much of his recent chess life focused on classical preparation, but results like these show he remains dangerous in rapid blitz formats. Russian grandmasters have historically excelled in these shorter time controls, and Sarana fits that pattern.
The 3+0 format occupies an interesting niche in online chess. It's fast enough to reward intuition and pattern knowledge over concrete calculation, but slow enough that major blunders still get punished. Players who dominate at this level typically share strong opening preparation, unshakeable nerve, and the ability to recognize when to push and when to consolidate.
What matters next for these three? For Ashraf, it's whether he can translate 3+0 dominance into consistent performance at longer time controls where classical understanding matters more. At 19 games from a perfect score, he proved something real about his current strength. For Xiong, results like these reinforce his value as a blitz specialist while he pursues his classical ambitions. And for Sarana, it's a reminder that even players focused elsewhere in chess can drop back into rapid blitz and compete at elite levels.
The Chess.com 3+0 events remain one of the purest tests of chess intuition available online. When three players separate from the field this decisively, it signals something about their current sharpness. Ashraf's near-perfection will draw the most attention, but all three players proved they belong in the conversation about who owns this particular corner of online chess right now.