Chaos, Close Calls, and a Very Lucky Mate-in-one: The Hyperbullet Championship 2025
Hello readers,
I recently took part in the 2025 Chess.com Hyperbullet Championship a wild, brain-melting mix of speed, strategy, and chaos. The event ran from June 12–13 and featured 651 players battling in a format that barely gives you time to blink. GM Andrew Tang defended his crown in dramatic fashion, taking down GM Daniel Naroditsky in a tense grand final reset.
Now, as you can see , I didn’t win the event. Not even close. But I walked away with some wild games, a few proud moments, and a lot of perspective on how ridiculous (and fun) hyperbullet really is. This post isn’t about glory — it’s about chaos, close calls, and a very lucky mate-in-one.
But first, let’s take a quick look at my qualifier stats:
Net Rating Change: –114
Total Games Played: 105
Record: 48 wins, 1 draw, 56 losses (Final Score: 48.5/105)
Wins vs. 2000+ Rated Players: 4
Highest-Rated Win: 2790 CM (@Queensandpawns)
The Hyperbullet Experience
Hyperbullet is a beast. With only 30 seconds per side and zero increment, every game feels like a car chase with no brakes. You mess up one premove; you're toast. One panicked blunder; game over.
Before this, I had barely touched bullet chess, let alone hyperbullet. So why did I enter a championship packed with titled players and mouse-speed demons? Honestly, I was just curious and a bit reckless.
Throughout the event, I faced all types of players. Some blitzed out wild openings. Others sat back, waiting for a slip. Every few games, I had to adapt on the fly relearn openings, shift strategies, and try not to panic when I dropped a queen on move 6.
I’ll be honest, most of my games were a blur of mouse slips, heart attacks, and “what even is this opening?” But somehow, in the middle of the madness, I pulled off a few wins that genuinely shocked me. One of them still doesn’t feel real.
Memorable Games
Let’s talk about that game.
One of my absolute highlights was a 13-move win against @CMQueensandpawns, a Candidate Master rated 2790 in bullet. The game ended with a mate-in-one blunder from my opponent. Yes, I took it. Yes, I celebrated like I won the whole thing.
I know what you're thinking:
“Asa, you got lucky to beat a 2790 because they blundered into mate!”
To that, I say:
Talk to me when you beat a 2790. 🤫
That win alone made the whole experience worth it. It’s the kind of thing only hyperbullet can give you: complete randomness, lightning tactics, and bragging rights forever.
While that was easily my biggest-rated scalp, I also snagged wins against a few 2000+ players that were much more hard-fought. I’ll be diving into a couple of those right now.
The first time I triumphed over a player called @captain_starship, a game in which despite time trouble, I outwitted my opponent.
The final game in this section I will show you is my game against @YaHyaa_Ab, a player rated over 2250. It just so happens that this game would be a perfect game for GothamChess’s Guess The Elo series. Why? A lot of pieces were hung, resulting in a lot of blunders despite our suspiciously high ratings. Anyway, to stop giving spoilers, I, the victor, will take through this rather unspectacular affair of evident terribleness.
Unmemorable Games
Let’s be real, some games in hyperbullet are less “epic battle” and more “what just happened?” They’re the chess equivalent of accidentally sending a text to the wrong person or walking into a room and forgetting why you’re there. Fast, messy, and full of moments that make you question every life choice leading up to that move. Yet here we are, celebrating the absolute chaos because this is a great blog, and sometimes the best stories come from the games you don’t even want to remember playing.
Now let’s take a closer look at the games that didn’t make headlines but definitely made me question my life choices.
The first game is the definition of hilarious. I got ruthlessly checkmated by @DavidMW11, a player rated 663, in 16 moves.
It would be generous to even call this next game a disaster. @chesseecndm took full advantage of my careless play by mating me in 24 moves.
I could probably use this next game as a YouTube tutorial on how to lose as fast as possible, because even though it wasn't my fastest loss in reality, it sure felt that way! Rated only 1042, @Psixmus trapped my queen in 9 moves, then proceeded to destroy every single atom of my existence, beating me by time out in rather a ... professional manner.
The Blur in Between
At some point, I stopped knowing where one game ended and the next began. The arena just kept pulling me forward, no pause, no breath, no chance to process what just happened. Win or lose, the board would vanish, and a new one would appear, already ticking down. I wasn’t playing games anymore. I was living inside a current, carried by speed and instinct and noise.
Hyperbullet doesn’t give you space to think. It strips the game down from reaction to raw motion. I’d click and drag and premove and pray, not because I had a plan, but because I had to keep moving. Stopping wasn’t an option. Even sipping water felt dangerous.
Somewhere in that chaos, time warped. Minutes passed like seconds, and seconds felt like hours. I’d lose three games in a row and barely feel it — then win one ugly, panicked scramble and feel like I could breathe again. There was no rhythm, yet somehow I found one. A kind of surrender to the pace. A strange, shaky peace.
And honestly, it was beautiful in its own way. Not because the chess was clean (it wasn’t), or the games were memorable (most weren’t), but because I got to feel what it’s like to be completely absorbed, not by calculation, but by the sheer act of staying in the moment. Of surviving, one move at a time.
Final Thoughts
I came into the Hyperbullet Championship expecting pain. I got that, and more. But I also got faster, sharper, and just a little more addicted to this format. Will I be back next year? Probably. Will I prep openings next time? Definitely not.
Thanks for reading, and if you’ve ever thought about playing hyperbullet; do it. It’s chaos, but it’s glorious chaos.
