GM Daniel Naroditsky continued his domination of October’s Bullet Brawls after finishing three points ahead of 10-time winner GM Hikaru Nakamura in a race to the finish on Saturday. In a tournament graced by the presence of top players such as GMs Magnus Carlsen, Andrew Tang, and Nihal Sarin, Naroditsky’s 70-win run is his best yet and he is the deserving winner of the $400 first prize.
Behind the two bullet juggernauts, Tang claimed the $150 third prize while the newly crowned “I’M Not A GM” Speed Chess Champion, IM Polina Shuvalova, took the $100 top female prize. In the community event, “advancedrook” once again triumphed in the event with 69 wins, one draw, and eight losses.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, October 28, 2023, at 1 p.m. ET/19:00 CEST.
How to review games?
The games from October’s third Bullet Brawl can be found here.
In Saturday’s two-hour titled arena, 25 players competed, and this week’s tournament was the most top-heavy in recent times, courtesy of the 2023 Qatar Masters ending and relieving several of the world’s top players who turned up and showed their bullet prowess.
For Naroditsky, winning his eighth Bullet Brawl title was more difficult than usual. However, having toppled Nakamura in the very first game, the American commentator showed he was up to the challenge.
Though Naroditsky’s overall scores against Nakamura and Carlsen, arguably the world’s best online speed chess players, were 2/6 and 1/3 respectively, it was his superiority over the rest of the field and trademark quick finishes that allowed him to take the title.
Finishing ahead of Nakamura in Bullet Brawl has been an impossible task for anyone but Naroditsky thus far, and doing so required several clutch moments.
With 10 minutes left on the arena clock and Nakamura ahead by a single win, it appeared as though he would storm home off the back of an eight-game winning streak. The world number-four found himself paired with the dangerous IM Kirill Klukin and was held to a draw after 45 moves, a result that would allow Naroditsky to tie things up.
The final minute of the event was quite possibly the most intense that Bullet Brawl has seen in its short history, and Nakamura, on the cusp of victory against CM Artem Bardyk, missed a timely rook sacrifice that led to a stalemate, while Naroditsky simultaneously flagged his opponent in the last moments.
Remarkably, Naroditsky and Nakamura have won 78% (or 18 out of 23) of Bullet Brawls events since its inception and are now locked in a battle for the most wins (currently Nakamura leads Naroditsky 10 to eight).
Viewers can expect the rivals to up the ante over the next few weeks as the race becomes tighter and more top players show their faces.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Name | Username | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | Daniel Naroditsky | DanielNaroditsky | 3306 | 253 | |
| 2 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura | Hikaru | 3276 | 250 | |
| 3 | GM | Andrew Tang | penguingm1 | 3174 | 217 | |
| 4 | GM | Jose Martinez | Jospem | 3130 | 216 | |
| 5 | GM | Oleksandr Bortnyk | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | 3122 | 188 | |
| 6 | GM | Vi Pranav | vi_pranav | 3091 | 179 | |
| 7 | GM | Christopher Yoo | ChristopherYoo | 3090 | 163 | |
| 8 | IM | Yoseph Taher | yosephtaher | 3035 | 149 | |
| 9 | GM | Leon Livaic | Elsa167 | 2958 | 144 | |
| 10 | GM | Tuan Minh Le | wonderfultime | 3060 | 139 | |
| 11 | FM | Goutham Krishna | splendidkid | 2890 | 123 | |
| 12 | IM | Bojan Maksimovic | mbojan | 2885 | 123 | |
| 13 | IM | Kirill Klukin | Kirill_Klukin | 2850 | 121 | |
| 14 | CM | Nika Volkov | NikaVolkov | 2912 | 118 | |
| 15 | GM | Sergei Zhigalko | Zhigalko_Sergei | 3064 | 115 | |
| 16 | CM | Artem Bardyk | BardArtem | 2798 | 114 | |
| 17 | FM | Robby Adamson | BLITZMASTER | 2769 | 111 | |
| 18 | GM | Ronen Har-Zvi | OldweakGM | 2821 | 102 | |
| 19 | CM | Eqor Baskakov | stollenmonster | 2814 | 99 | |
| 20 | FM | Gabriel Arteaga | Gravity_Chess | 2892 | 99 |
Bullet Brawl is an exciting new titled arena that features Chess.com’s top bullet specialists and now takes place weekly on Saturdays. The format is a two-hour arena with a 1+0 time control; the prize fund is $1,000.
Much like Titled Tuesday and Arena Kings, Bullet Brawl often features top GMs, including Hikaru Nakamura, Daniel Naroditsky, Andrew Tang, Tuan Minh Le, and many more!
Previous coverage:
