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Naroditsky Outclasses Bullet Brawl Field
Naroditsky scored 252 points in the two-hour arena by achieving 70 wins, four draws, and seven losses.

Naroditsky Outclasses Bullet Brawl Field

JackRodgers
| 17 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Daniel Naroditsky won October's first Bullet Brawl by a convincing margin of 44 points on Saturday, one week after claiming his fifth title. The U.S. GM's score of 252 was more than enough to secure the $400 first prize ahead of the second-place IM Renato Terry (208) and the third-place IM Yoseph Taher (205) who earned $250 and $150 respectively.

Of the 121 titled players participating, FM Anastasia Avramidou was the top-finishing female player and she won $100 for her efforts. Member "ExcitingBeast" was able to win 65 games and lose just eight en route to claiming the top spot in the community event.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, October 14, 2023, at 1 p.m. ET/19:00 CEST.

How to review games?
The games from October's first Bullet Brawl can be found here.


Much attention has been drawn to the rivalry that GMs Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura share in speed chess, though it has to be said that in bullet chess, Naroditsky's name is absolutely worthy of being spoken in the same sentence thanks to his lightning speed and poise. Check out one of his most popular Twitch clips from 2020 featuring a hyperbullet game against GM Andrew Tang.

Having added a sixth Bullet Brawl title to his trophy cabinet, the articulate content creator has begun closing in on Nakamura's record of 10 titles and has won four more editions than his closest challengers (GMs Jose Martinez and Nihal Sarin).

Just five unique winners have been crowned in the 21 editions of Bullet Brawl. Image: Chess.com.

Naroditsky's victory on Saturday was one of his most dominant thus far and despite losses to Martinez and FM Petros Trimitzios early, a consistent performance throughout was what gave Naroditsky a wide berth from other contenders such as the second seed GM David Paravyan.

Naroditsky's intuition combined with his creativity makes him a dangerous foe in bullet chess. Photo: Benjamin Robson.

What truly allowed Naroditsky to stamp his authority on the match, though, was his precision against the tournament's top players, exemplified in his clinical win over compatriot GM Christopher Yoo. After employing his pet Jobava London System, Naroditsky found a temporary queen sacrifice that allowed him to win a pawn and gain a decisive advantage with 39 seconds left on the clock.

Brilliant knight sacrifices were also on the menu for the eventual winner during the two-hour arena. See if you can find some of the combinations that Naroditsky employed to convert against his opponents below.

While the 10-time winner Nakamura will likely miss October's second Bullet Brawl due to the upcoming Qatar Masters tournament, the battle at the top of the leaderboard will continue to heat up as Naroditsky draws closer to "la decima."

Standings

Rank Fed Title Name Username Rating Score
1 GM Daniel Naroditsky DanielNaroditsky 3194 252
2 IM Renato Terry MITerryble 3060 208
3 IM Yoseph Taher yosephtaher 3082 205
4 GM Jose Martinez Jospem 3084 199
5 GM David Paravyan dropstoneDP 3113 192
6 GM Christopher Yoo ChristopherYoo 3045 190
7 IM Matthew Galchenko MatthewG-p4p 3036 168
8 GM Rasmus Svane rasmussvane 2946 160
9 GM Sergeri Zhigalko Zhigalko_Sergei 3001 148
10 GM Leon Livaic Elsa167 2913 145
11 GM Vugar Rasulov vugarrasulov 2959 127
12 GM Aleksandar Indjic Beca95 2886 123
13 CM Daniil Rakitin quvnoq_muxlis 2854 122
14 FM Dachey Lin 1800_strength 2835 120
15 IM Ruben Nunez Rutricks 2763 115
16 FM Petros Trimitzios TrimitziosP7 2917 115
17 NM Qingyu Yuan Abund 2838 103
18 FM WindWhistler11 2668 100
19 CM Artem Bardyk BardArtem 2760 95
20 FM Igor Vakhlamov Iball95 2733 94


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!


Previous coverage:

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