Nakamura Wins Bullet Open Championship
GM Hikaru Nakamura defeated GM Alireza Firouzja in the final to win the Chess.com Bullet Open Championship on Sunday. Nakamura won the $5,000 first prize while Firouzja earned $2,000.
The live broadcast of the second day.
Nakamura defeated GMs Vladislav Artemiev (7-3) in the quarterfinal and then GM Daniel Naroditsky (5.5-3.5) before winning the final 6.5-3.5. Firouzja scored a crushing 8-0 vs. GM Arjun Erigaisi and then beat GM Andrew Tang 5.5-2.5 in the semifinal.
Sunday's knockout matches consisted of a 15-minute Speed Chess Championship style match, where players alternate colors until the time expires.
The final started with four wins for White. Nakamura was the first to break the trend as he won game six as Black. He continued winning the next two games as well when the match was basically over. The score was 6-2, with two minutes and 20 seconds left on the match clock.
Nakamura was cruising and showed it on camera. As commentator GM Maurice Ashley put it: he was dancing like it's 1999.
It was Firouzja who was awarded the unofficial Move of the Match, a tactic that was spotted by co-commentator Wouter Bik but one move too early when it didn't work yet. While it was being discussed on the broadcast, Firouzja played it a move later:
Firouzja won $2,000 for second place while Naroditsky and Tang earned $1,000. The four losing quarterfinalists got $250.
All games
The Chess.com Bullet Open Championship was a two-day tournament on December 19-20 with the winner clinching a spot in next year's Bullet Chess Championship. With a $10,000 prize fund on the line, this event featured a 1|0 time control in all games and was open to all titled players.
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