Firouzja Defends Title, Wins 3rd Bullet Chess Championship
GM Alireza Firouzja defended his title as the bullet chess champion by defeating GM Oleksandr Bortnyk 19.5-5.5 in the 2025 Bullet Chess Championship Grand Final. It was a dominant showing, as the French number-one won every match by a margin of 10 points or more. He earned $10,000.
Runner-up Bortnyk made $8,000 and won two matches on Saturday. He first defeated GM Denis Lazavik 9-7 before winning a one-sided match against GM Daniel Naroditsky 16.5-5.5.
- Losers Semifinal & Final: Bortnyk Exacts Revenge Vs. Naroditsky
- Grand Final: Firouzja Dominates 2025 BCC
Bracket
The prizes have so far been distributed as follows:
Losers Semifinal & Final: Bortnyk Exacts Revenge Vs. Naroditsky
Bortnyk won the match against Lazavik 9-7, achieving the necessary two-point lead in the last game of regular time and thus avoiding tiebreaks. For most of the match, it was extremely close with neither player ever achieving more than a two-point lead.
Early on, Lazavik took the 3-2 lead after his opponent overlooked an in-between move and blundered a piece. Though Bortnyk found the best continuation to fight on, a few moves later Lazavik trapped the white queen.
But Bortnyk, with Black, evened the score in the next game with a bishop sacrifice on g3. He then took the lead 4.5-3.5 after winning a game with, in the end, five pawns for a piece.
The fight raged on, however, as several games later Lazavik won two in a row to even the score at 6-6. The comeback started with Bortnyk walking into a mate-in-one (both players were on two seconds):
Bortnyk took a 7-6 lead, but Lazavik defended a great game to again even the score. It was the last two that decided the match, and Bortnyk won both just in time to avoid tiebreaks.
First, in a mad time scramble, Lazavik hung a rook in an equal rook endgame. Then, from a losing position, Bortnyk spotted the blundered mate-in-one instantly. This won the match, and Bortnyk's celebration on camera was pretty awesome:
Bortnyk pulls off a checkmate, from a losing position, to win the game and match!https://t.co/5NJKAyCCj1#BulletChess pic.twitter.com/Wr1sz1eCZV
— chess24 (@chess24com) June 28, 2025
Next, it was Bortnyk vs. Naroditsky in the Losers Final. While Naroditsky had won their previous match in this event 11-7, Bortnyk could hardly have had a more pronounced run of revenge. He triumphed 16-5.
The match was a disaster for Naroditsky straight out of the gates. Bortnyk won the first eight games in a row, and the main question by this point was whether he'd get to 10. Game number-eight featured checkmate on the board as early as move 32.
Naroditsky won game nine, but then resigned quickly in the next one, on move 18.
It was back to the Bortnyk show from then on out, even if he lost four games and dropped two draws. In his fourth loss, Bortnyk found the cold-blooded only winning move 42...Ka6! to parry a dangerous attack, though Naroditsky outpaced him in the time scramble.
Revenge was complete, and Bortnyk's reward was a match against the undefeated, and it seems undefeatable, Firouzja.
Grand Final: Firouzja Dominates 2025 BCC
As he had done in every previous match, Firouzja never left any doubt. He won the Grand Final by a monstrous 14-point margin. It was a resounding victory for the French number-one who said that he's been out of practice with bullet chess lately: "Before, I was playing seven-eight hours per day; now, I am not playing so much."
Firouzja won the first four games in a row. Game one featured a knight sacrifice for the dark squares, and there was nothing good to do about the looming checkmate on g7.
The brilliant 23...Bf3!! to equalize a nearly lost position in game four was one of the best moves of the tournament. From there, Firouzja won in the time scramble with the passed a-pawn.
Bortnyk won game five, but he went on to lose the next six in a row. In the first game of that streak, Firouzja impressively rattled off the only way to win: 31.h5! followed by 32.g4! for a mating attack on the h-file.
Soon enough, Firouzja was up 10-1. But Bortnyk found a nice queen trap to net his second win.
Later, with the score at 12-4, Bortnyk found a nice way to trap his opponent's piece, but Firouzja won anyway with a swindle. By this point Bortnyk's tilt was front and center.
For the rest of the match, Bortnyk would win just one more game, while Firouzja would rack up seven more of his own. The match was decided long before the timer ran out.
Firouzja joined for an interview and said that this year was undeniably easier than last year, when he faced GM Hikaru Nakamura in the Grand Final: "For sure it's less nerve-wracking because last year against Hikaru was crazy, so I'm happy that it went smoothly."
As for staying focused, he explained, "For me it was important to see what is my form in the first match. After the first match when I realized I'm in good shape, I was not so worried. In general, I think my opponents underperformed a bit against me."
In general, I think my opponents underperformed a bit against me.
—Alireza Firouzja
About the next generation, players like IM Faustino Oro, GM Andy Woodward, and GM Yagiz Erdogmus, Firouzja said, "I think they're all very fast and very good, but I don't know if somebody like Hikaru or someone that could really compete. I don't see it yet, but maybe in a few years we'll see something like that."
Firouzja is still interested in qualifying for the 2026 Candidates Tournament. He said he's registered for the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss, taking place in September, and will assess playing in the 2025 FIDE World Cup if he doesn't qualify there.
His next big event will be the 2025 Esports World Cup, where he will represent Team Falcons (on the same team with Nakamura). He said, "I'm really excited for the [Esports] World Cup. I think it's one of the most important tournaments of my calendar this year, it's the most exciting one probably also."
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 took place on Chess.com during June 25-28, after Play-ins on June 23. It is the strongest online bullet tournament and determines the fastest chess player in the world. The time control was 1+0. The total prize fund was $50,000.
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