Tang Places Queen En Prise To Steal Bullet Brawl Title From Naroditsky

A single point and mere seconds decided the latest edition of Bullet Brawl after GM Andrew Tang executed a 15-move win to steal the $400 first prize from GM Daniel Naroditsky in Saturday's event. 

Ukraine's GM Oleksandr Bortnyk wasn't far off the pace, earning $150 for his 200-point performance, while IM Renato Terry received $100 for his fourth-place finish (on countback ahead of GM Nihal Sarin).

FM Anastasia Avramidou's score of 76 was enough to bag the $100 women's prize, and Georgia's Nikoloz Akhvlediani managed to win the community event with a 62.5/73 score.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at noon ET/18:00 CEST.

Standings

A new victor has been added to Bullet Brawl's all-time winner list, and Tang is just the seventh player to be crowned in 42 iterations of the two-hour arena. Minnesota's first homegrown GM had finished among the top three in numerous Bullet Brawls; however, this was his first time taking out the top spot.

The battle for first place was a showdown between Tang and Naroditsky from the get-go, and as the tournament clock dwindled, it looked as though the latter would clinch the win following a bizarre nine-move win over CM Volen Dyulgerov (the inventor of the Alien Gambit) that pushed his final score to 227. Beware, the next two games shown mostly consist of pre-moves as time was of the essence.

Tang's riposte was equally impressive and a series of pre-move tricks, including riskily placing his queen en prise to checkmate in just 15 moves against his 2600-rated opponent, saw the 24-year-old move to 228, one point ahead of his compatriot.

While Tang's final game secured the win, it was his earlier effort against Naroditsky that thrust him into contention. Playing on the white side of an opening that resembled the Hanham, Lion's Claw variation of the Philidor Defense, Tang ground down his logophile opponent.

Splitting his time between chess and his role as a quantitative trader at SIQ, Tang has still managed to maintain his world-class status in bullet chess, his rating currently places him fourth on the leaderboard of active players on Chess.com, and he will be a force to be reckoned with in Chess.com's Bullet Chess Championship and Speed Chess Championship's later in 2024.

Among the 130 participants were several famous faces including banter blitz legend GM Pepe Cuenca, Argentinian prodigy FM Faustino Oro, and several 2600+ FIDE-rated players: Naroditsky, Bortnyk, Nihal, GMs Matthias Bluebaum, Raunak Sadhwani, Leon Luke Mendonca, and Gata Kamsky. For titled players, Bullet Brawl is the perfect way to get a bullet chess game against some of your favorite chess stars!

(Full final standings here)

Bullet Brawl is an exciting new titled arena that features Chess.com's top bullet specialists and 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:

• • Announcing Chess.com Community Bullet Brawl Tournaments
  • Introducing Bullet Brawls And New Arena Options