Bullet Reverse

Bullet Reverse

Recently, I was able to reach a new bullet record and hit 1700 in my bullet rating. Bullet is very fast, much faster than rapid and blitz. Bullet leaves room for a boatload of blunders and flags within a matter of seconds. It was no different in the bullet games I played leading up to my highest rating. All the games were 1-minute games with no bonus.

Game 1

In this game, I was playing black against a 1594 from Colombia. White played, e4, and I played c5, the Sicilian. White would follow up with development by playing Nf3 and Bc4, which is a little peculiar, as it doesn't make it clear if he is going to play open on closed with the d pawn. So I played solid with d6 and Nf6. White enforces the center with d3 and castles, while I play e6 and Nc6, preventing any forward movement. So far, nothing too crazy.

The game continues with me developing my bishop and casting short. My opponent also makes an interesting knight reroute to f1, eventually to either g3 or e3, similar to the weird movements of the Spanish. This gives me time to do a massive pawn push to attack white's bishop and have a huge center. In the meantime, my opponent's pieces are on the back rank.

However, I decide to play d4, and the game is quickly opened with the center opening with cxd4 and we have a knight trade. However, with time ticking, I played the moves that I thought would be alright and holdable, so I decided to trade bishop for knight with Bxe4, and suddenly, white has a lot of activity, and I decide to trade rooks as well. White now has a lot of open lines with the bishop pair and queen. 

White continues to improve their position with Bf4, while I pushed my a pawn, but white threatened my knight with a3, so I attacked white's bishop with a4. But then, my opponent unleashed a brilliant move. Can you find it in four seconds, like white did?

Bxf7+ is a brilliant move that gives white a material advantage, and we exchange pieces. Then, I blunder another pawn with g5, and soon, the white queen begins relentlessly chasing my king and begins devouring everything.

I was now down 7 points in material with around 9 seconds remaining, while white had 16, but I just kept playing, and at this point in the game, you just kind of play whatever you can, especially as white was bringing in his rook into the game. 

And it's a good thing I didn't because I guess white thought he could just flag me. He just hung his rook and queen with me only having around three seconds remaining. But I just began premoving what I knew would be safe, which was staying on the opposite color of white's bishop.

And on move 44, I was able to flag my opponent for a win from a completely losing position. 

Game 2

Now this was a crazy game that I played with white against a 1720 from India. I played the English c4, while black responded with the reverse sicilian, e5. But black blundered by pushing the pawn for free. Even crazier, was  black playing d5, which could've been taken, but I instinctively brought my knight back, and had to go back to e4 after the d pawn was pushed further. Black enforced the center and developed his bishop and knight to attack e4, while I fianchettoed my bishop.

Soon, the center would explode, with us trading pawns and black would give up the bishop pair for a knight. However, I would blunder with Ne2, allowing black to check my king and prevent it from casting.

Black would castle, and I would begin casting manually. However, I would blunder with Bxe4, not seeing the obvious Qxe4, and the queen now had eyes on the h1 square, a constant and scary check that could only be blocked by my knight. Black also continued pushing his passed d pawn.

I decided to trade rooks and bring my queen back. Black made a mistake to not defend his passed pawn, then made an even bigger blunder with Qh3+. At first, I thought it was over because I couldn't move my king, but the checkmate sound didn't play, and it took a few seconds, but then I realized the only legal move was Nxh3. On move 25, black resigned after hanging their queen.

The 1700 Game

The final game is the game where I first crossed 1700 in bullet. In this game, I was playing black against a 1647 from Hungary.

White played e4, and I played the Sicilian again. Nf3 and d6, followed with Nc3 and Nf6. White decided to check early with Bb5+, and we traded light squared bishops, which is beneficial for white if he castles short. Thus, we both castle short. 

However, my opponent would begin making mistakes by hanging a pawn and overlooking a fork of the bishop and knight, resulting in material loss.

We would trade knights, and I would begin building a pawn chain to counter act white's bishop. He would also hang another pawn, although, he would begin threatening mates in 1 on the g7 square, which I would have to cover with my rook.

But then, the free pawn I grabbed, would become a problem with Rab1, looking at my b pawn, pinning my pin to the only protection of the g pawn. However, with bullet, I made the blunder of moving my bishop, despite it begin protected by my rook. This led to my kingside collapsing and I would lose my other rook to a pin.

Even though things weren't looking good, I still decided to keep playing for a few more seconds of torture. I would also lose my knight in a few moves. But my opponent would make a subtle mistake of trading queens. With the queens off the board, I was able to put all my pawns on the bishop's dark squares, negating my opponent's bishop and began supporting my passed a pawn, while blocking my opponent's passed h pawn with my bishop and maximizing its position. 

And it feels like a common theme, but my opponent began premoving with me having 10 seconds remaining, probably thinking that he could trick and flag me because he would hang his bishop and rook in the next few moves, and my bishop's diagonal becomes extremely powerful and prevents any progress for white. I push my a pawn to promotion, and white is able to push his f pawn, but my bishop is so well positioned that it controls the promotion square. From, there it became a clean up of premoves with my opponent having three pawns and 8 seconds, while I had a queen and two seconds.

I was able to clean up all of white's remaining pawns and I just began premoving my queen, and on move 60, I won on time against white and was able to achieve a rating of 1700.

While it felt good to get 1700, I would precede to lose 7 hyperbullet games in a row shortly after. The theme of the story is that at some point, time can be too short. But what are your thoughts on these completely horrendous wins? Let me know!