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Firouzja, Nihal, Naroditsky, Sevian Advance To Winners Semis

Firouzja, Nihal, Naroditsky, Sevian Advance To Winners Semis

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NM AnthonyLevin
| 25 | Chess Event Coverage

GMs Alireza Firouzja, Nihal Sarin, Daniel Naroditsky, and Sam Sevian are the last ones left in the Winners Bracket of the 2025 Bullet Chess Championship after day one. All four players won both of their matches to stay at the top, while the other 12 players are on their second and last lives in the Losers Bracket.

Day two, featuring the Losers Rounds 1 and 2 and Winners Semifinals, is on Thursday, June 26, starting at 12:00 p.m. ET / 18:00 CEST / 9:30 p.m. IST.

Bracket After Day 1

The field of 16 has been narrowed down to four in the Winners Bracket.

Winners


Nobody has been eliminated yet, but we will get our first and second slates of eliminations on Thursday. The players on their last lives are GMs Jeffery Xiong, Mitrabha Guha, Andy Woodward, Mahammad Muradli, Sergei Zhigalko, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Denis Lazavik, Tuan Minh Le, Arjun Erigaisi, Oleksandr Bortnyk, Andrew Tang, and Yagiz Erdogmus.

Losers

Format & Who's Playing

The tournament is a double-elimination bracket with 16 players. The time control is one minute for each side with no increment. Matches consist of a 30-minute countdown clock for all rounds, except for the Winners Semifinals, Winners Final, and Grand Final, which are each 45 minutes long. Players must have a two-point lead when the timer runs out to win the match; otherwise, they play tiebreaks until one player reaches a two-point lead.

The following eight players were invited. Firouzja, who won in 2021 and 2024, is the defending champion.

Bullet Chess Championship 2025 players

And, after topping their respective Play-ins on Monday, the following players qualified. Zhigalko replaced GM Ediz Gurel, who withdrew, as the next in line from Play-in 3. 

Bullet Chess Championship 2025 play-in players

The top prize is $10,000, though even someone who loses all of their matches will still go home with over $1,000. The total prize fund is $50,000.

Round of 16: Arjun Scores Best Comeback, 8 Players Advance

The Winners Round of 16 took place with two sets of four matches; the second set started about two hours after the first. The Winners Quarterfinals was also split in the same way.

The four winners in that first set of matches were Firouzja, Erdogmus, Nihal, and Tang. Firouzja had the best start, defeating Xiong 13.5-3.5. Nihal defeated Woodward 11-7, while Tang took down Muradli 10-6. 

We saw a number of checkmates played in a fraction of a second. Though he lost the match, Woodward finished a pawn-up endgame on the spot with a unique pawn-jab checkmate.

The closest match was Erdogmus vs. Mitrabha, which Erdogmus won by the tight margin of 10-8. In game 14, the Turkish star took less than a second to play the best move in the following position (also with a checkmate theme). Can you find the fastest win (even if there are many other winning moves)?

Erdogmus was on the back foot and was one loss away from entering the Losers Bracket. But that's when he won on demand. 

And then he went on to win the next two games in tiebreaks to turn the match around. But he'd have to face bullet-whiz Firouzja next...

As for the second set of Round of 16 matches, the winners there were Naroditsky, Bortnyk, Sevian, and Arjun. Naroditsky and Bortnyk breezed through their matches, respectively defeating Zhigalko 13-6 and Duda 13-3. The other two matches were close, and both went to tiebreaks. 

Sevian beat Lazavik by immediately winning two tiebreak games, wrapping up the match in 17 games, while Arjun vs. Le was a 25-game marathon. In fact, it was Le who led by two points until Arjun, on demand, won the buzzer beater last game to reach tiebreaks.

"Arjun refuses to go down. This guy is eternal!" said commentator Hambleton when the Indian grandmaster just kept bouncing back. In the end, he even won the match by two.

Arjun refuses to go down. This guy is eternal!

—Aman Hambleton

An early example of Arjun's tenacity was in game seven, where he stole victory from the jaws of defeat, down a piece, thanks to the passed h-pawn.

After plenty of back and forth, the "madman of chess" came out on top. Arjun ended the last game, and the match, by winning his opponent's queen with a skewer.

Winners Quarterfinals: Firouzja Dominates, Naroditsky Overcomes Tilt

Again, we saw two sets of matches scheduled to play two hours apart. In the first set, Firouzja and Nihal were victorious.

Firouzja dominated another match 14-4 against Erdogmus. There was the hint of a comeback early on (even if it was later stifled) by the 14-year-old. After losing the first four games, he put together a string of two wins, winning the second one thanks to the power of a passed pawn, despite being a piece down.

But Firouzja shrugged that off with nine consecutive wins of his own. Even if his streak slowed by the last five games, the match was already unsalvageable for Erdogmus.

The other match, Nihal vs. Erdogmus, was much closer. Tang's nicest combination was 24.Ng6!!, as you can see below. Nihal shook his head and resigned without making another move.

Nevertheless, Nihal maintained the lead to the end, and the following queen blunder by Tang was the nail in the coffin.

We saw Sevian and Naroditsky win the second set of matches, respectively against Arjun and Bortnyk. Sevian dominated the match against Arjun, while Naroditsky had to beat back a comeback in the longer match against Bortnyk.

"Sam is just beating Erigaisi every game now," said Canty as Sevian took a 6-1 lead early on. It was extremely one-sided, and Sevian's indomitable form was on full display in game six, stunning the commentators.

Two games later, Sevian even won a game shortly after dropping a whole piece. Everything just seemed to go his way.

The match between Naroditsky and Bortnyk was one between two friends who have played more than 2,000 games on Chess.com alone. Naroditsky led their encounters with 1196 wins, 196 draws, and 738 losses. In his interview, he later explained that they usually meet in Bullet Brawl on Saturdays and that encounters are usually one-sided: "It won't be 50-50. Either Sasha will win every single game or I will win every single game."

Either Sasha will win every single game or I will win every single game.

—Daniel Naroditsky

Naroditsky was on fire at the start of the match, scoring 3.5 points in the first four games. The third time Bortnyk lost, the tilt was visible as he hung a full exchange in one move after moving too quickly.

Three games later, Naroditsky was up 5-1. In bullet chess, however, things can spin out of control in the blink of an eye. Bortnyk won three games in a row, showing off a funny bullet trick in first game of that streak.

In the interview, Naroditsky explained his thought process by this point. "I just told myself I cannot throw another game," he said, and said the following about tilt.

Tilt, just like anything, is a choice. You can make the choice to continue tilting and feeling sorry for yourself or you can make the choice to actually put 100% effort into every game. Fortunately, I managed to choose the [second] one, although it wasn't easy.

Tilt, just like anything, is a choice.

—Daniel Naroditsky

Fortunately for him, that was the end of the comeback for Bortnyk. Naroditsky won six of the next games while dropping just two losses.

On Thursday, we will see Firouzja face Nihal and Naroditsky against Sevian. Although Naroditsky said the field is undeniably weaker without GMs Magnus Carlsen or Hikaru Nakamura playing, it's still going to be an immense challenge to win. He assessed Firouzja as the favorite, but also stated that Nihal in good form is "basically unbeatable."

How to review?

You can review the round's broadcast on the Chess.com YouTube or Twitch channels. The games can also be reviewed from our dedicated events page. 

GM Aman Hambleton and FM James Canty III hosted the broadcast.

The 2025 Bullet Chess Championship takes place on Chess.com from June 25-28, after Play-ins on June 23. It is the strongest online bullet tournament and determines who is the fastest chess player in the world. The time control is 1+0. The total prize fund is $50,000.

Previous coverage:

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