Bullet Brawl Feb 25: Naroditsky Records 48-Game Unbeaten Streak In Bullet Brawl

In a Bullet Brawl showdown between two of the quickest players in chess, GMs Daniel Naroditsky and Andrew Tang, Naroditsky came out on top on Saturday. Claiming his 12th title and the $400 first prize, the U.S. commentator scored 247 points in the two-hour arena and posted a 48-game unbeaten streak in the middle of the event.

With an inaugural Bullet Brawl title still escaping him, ultra-bullet virtuoso Tang dominated the majority of the field to slip into second, while GM Oleksandr Bortnyk scored 198 points and won $150 for third place.

Finishing in 22nd place with 86 points, IM Karina Ambartsumova received $100 for being the highest-placed female finisher, and a new contender, “DRM_CHAMP3” won the community event by a convincing margin.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, March 2, 2024, at noon ET/18:00 CEST.

Standings

Ahead of his highly anticipated Team Chess Battle quarterfinal matchup, which will see him link up with GM Robert Hess to take on GMs Peter Svidler and Jan Gustafsson, Naroditsky has shown that he is as sharp as ever with a crushing victory in Saturday’s Bullet Brawl. 

In a stacked field featuring bullet titans like GMs Tuan Minh Le, Jose Martinez, Rauf Mamedov, and Raunak Sadhwani, Naroditsky had his work cut out for him but started in the best way possible, dropping only two and a half points in the first hour of play.

Whether it was Greek gifts or rook lifts Naroditsky barely missed a beat and it soon became clear that his closest rivals, Tang and Bortnyk, would need a miracle to keep up with the content creator. Tang did end up with a small window of opportunity when he paired with Naroditsky late in the piece but blundered checkmate in one while up by a knight.

Even grandmasters weren’t immune to Naroditsky’s rampant run and GM Alan Pichot was one of many to fall to one of the eventual winner’s tactical shots. While Pichot seemed to be holding on after employing the Modern Defense, Naroditsky found a delectable knight sacrifice on move 25 to shred the Spanish representative’s kingside.

A sluggish finish for the American GM did little to mar his impressive performance and one statistic that stood out when the time expired was that he had beaten Bortnyk, a longtime rival and the site’s third highest-rated bullet chess player, six out of seven times… 

Finishing in third place Bortnyk was no slouch either and showed off his tactical prowess while streaming live on Twitch.

Aside from Naroditsky’s exhibition, several junior players stood out during Saturday’s Bullet Brawl including GM Pranav Venkatesh, as well as IMs Ediz Gurel, and Andy Woodward. For the 13-year-old Woodward, who proved himself as a puzzle rush extraordinaire in early 2023, almost finished in the top 10 and scored wins over Sadhwani, Mamedov, and GM Vugar Rasulov.

Between Naroditsky and GM Hikaru Nakamura, who was busy playing the legendary GM Viswanathan Anand in the Bundesliga on Saturday, they have won over 75% (31 out of 41) editions of Bullet Brawl since its inception. 

(Full final standings here)