Naroditsky Secures 10th Bullet Brawl Title
GM Daniel Naroditsky has become the second player, along with GM Hikaru Nakamura, to win 10 or more Bullet Brawl's after posting a score of 272 in Saturday's event, 54 points ahead of the second-placed IM Terry Renato and 78 ahead of third, IM Yoseph Taher.
In the two-hour arena, 74 wins, two draws, and eight losses made up Naroditsky's performance that saw him bag the $400 first prize ahead of 103 titled players.
The top-scoring female player of the event was FM Anastasia Avramidou (81), who duked it out with Bullet Brawl regular IM Karina Ambartsumova (75) and eventually prevailed by a margin of six points. Cesar Talledo Lagos won the community event for the second week running with a score of 263.
The final Bullet Brawl arena of the year will take place on Saturday, December 30, 2023, at 1 p.m. ET/19:00 CEST.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Name | Username | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | Daniel Naroditsky | DanielNaroditsky | 3185 | 272 | |
| 2 | IM | Renato Terry | MITerryble | 3095 | 218 | |
| 3 | IM | Yoseph Taher | yosephtaher | 3006 | 194 | |
| 4 | GM | Alan Pichot | platy3 | 2946 | 164 | |
| 5 | GM | Christopher Yoo | ChristopherYoo | 3028 | 160 | |
| 6 | IM | Tobias Kolle | Tobias_Koelle | 2923 | 159 | |
| 7 | FM | Manu David | ManuDavid2910 | 2941 | 158 | |
| 8 | CM | Eqor Baskakov | stollenmonster | 2959 | 154 | |
| 9 | FM | Dimitrios Ladopoulos | jimis98 | 2893 | 151 | |
| 10 | NM | Janak Awatramani | 12teen | 2951 | 142 | |
| 11 | IM | Seo Jungmin | seopie | 2858 | 135 | |
| 12 | GM | Harsha Bharathakoti | Harsha_Bharathakoti | 2965 | 132 | |
| 13 | FM | Dmitry Goltsev | GoltsevDmitry2000 | 2826 | 124 | |
| 14 | CM | Matfey Rogov | Statham_13 | 2750 | 120 | |
| 15 | GM | Jose Martinez | Jospem | 3188 | 111 | |
| 16 | GM | Aman Hambleton | KNVB | 2859 | 106 | |
| 17 | GM | Fidel Corrales Jiminez | gmcorrales | 2752 | 105 | |
| 18 | CM | Andrey Ermolaev | PchelkinVK | 2729 | 104 | |
| 19 | GM | Gata Kamsky | TigrVShlyape | 2772 | 97 | |
| 20 | CM | Mykola Korchnskyi | nindjaxx8 | 2708 | 85 |
(Full final standings here.)
Since its inception back in January, Bullet Brawl has taken place on 32 occasions, and remarkably, 25 of these have been won by two players, Nakamura (15) and Naroditsky (10). While both have managed to dominate numerous editions, their juxtaposing styles and strategies have made for many interesting battles.
On Saturday, in a Nakamura-less event, Naroditsky showed just how quick he is by getting through a colossal 84 games, 13 more than his closest competitor Terry, who is no slouch on the pace front either.
As Naroditsky tore through opponent after opponent, he quickly amassed a highlight reel of tactics; the best came against Taher and GM Alan Pichot.
Super GMs were also not immune to Naroditsky's rampage and as part of his 31-game unbeaten streak in the middle stage of the tournament, the commentator defeated the world number-16 GM Parham Maghsoodloo in 17 moves!
With many of the world's top quick chess players traveling to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for the 2023 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships between Christmas and New Year's Day, Bullet Brawl will be a little less top-heavy in the final event of 2023.
Though Naroditsky's and Nakamura's availability for the December 30 arena is unclear, the chances of a new winner being crowned are heightened by the clash, and this should make for a blockbuster finish to a year of high-speed arenas.
How to review games?
The games from December's third Bullet Brawl can be found here.
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!
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