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Naroditsky Dominates Back-To-Back Bullet Brawls

Naroditsky Dominates Back-To-Back Bullet Brawls

JackRodgers
| 7 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Daniel Naroditsky netted $400 and his second Bullet Brawl victory in a row on Saturday after scoring 260 points ahead of 122 other titled players. Scoring 72 wins in 83 games, Naroditsky put a healthy buffer between himself and second and third places, GM Oleksandr Bortnyk (222) and IM Yoseph Taher (214), respectively.

Picking up the $100 best women's prize was WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya, who managed to eclipse IM Meri Arabidze's score for the second week in a row. The community event, which runs concurrently with the titled one was topped by "Macmasterr," who scored 77 wins and 11 losses.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, April 13, 2024, at noon ET/18:00 CEST.

Standings

Rank Fed Title Name Username Rating Score
1 GM Daniel Naroditsky DanielNaroditsky 3236 260
2 GM Oleksandr Bortnyk Oleksandr_Bortnyk 3206 222
3 IM Yoseph Taher yosephtaher 3069 214
4 GM Tuan Minh Le wonderfultime 3154 209
5 IM Renato Terry MITerryble 3076 193
6 GM Pranesh M artooon 2965 169
7 GM Matthias Bluebaum Msb2 3058 162
8 IM Arash Tahbaz Arash_Tahbaz 2911 150
9 IM Eray Kilic DonkyDonkyDonkey 2944 145
10 GM S.L. Narayanan IndianLad 2963 141
11 FM Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov Zohid6 2923 138
12 IM Kacper Drozdowski Kacparov 2922 134
13 IM Andy Woodward Philippians46 3035 125
14 FM bubeliang bubeliang 2847 121
15 IM Harshavardhan GB Legendinunknown 2860 120
16 FM Dmitry Goltsev GoltsevDmitry2000 2828 118
17 FM Tanitolua Adewumi TanitoluwaAps116 2840 118
18 GM Giorgi Marqvelashvili TheSilmarils 2921 114
19 GM Jose Martinez Jospem 3165 111
20 CM Eqor Koshulyan Eqor_Koshulyan 2779 110
(Full final standings here)

In a field crowded with bullet chess maestros such as GMs Tuan Minh Le, Matthias Bluebaum, Bortnyk, and S.L. Narayanan, Naroditsky had his work cut out for him on Saturday but once again proved that he, alongside GM Hikaru Nakamura, are the kings of Bullet Brawl.

Naroditsky and Nakamura have claimed 36 of the 47 Bullet Brawl titles since its inception.

The Charlotte-based commentator kicked off the arena in style, scoring nine wins in his first 10 games and, thanks to his mouse skills, was able to stave off a winning attempt by 13-year-old ChessKid prodigy FM Tanitoluwa Adewumi

Giant Killer: The ChessKid of the Year recently "Lefonged" Nakamura in a Bullet Brawl matchup.

In Naroditsky's games against the eventual second-place Bortnyk, each result was decided with mere seconds on the clock, and an average of 80 moves were played in the three games. In their second game, which was a Sicilian Defense: Slow Variation, the erroneous 40.Nxf5? cost Bortnyk a shot at closing the gap between the leaders.

Naroditsky's run home was the most impressive part of his performance, and if the Greek Gift sacrifices and a 14-move win against an IM were starting to make you think he was in a rush, you'd be right! Immediately after the arena had finished, Naroditsky joined commentators GM Peter Leko and IM Tania Sachdev on ChessTV for coverage of the 2024 FIDE Candidates Tournament.

The most picturesque finish of the day, though, occurred in Maltsevskaya-Yirik, where the Polish WGM found a clutch brilliancy to checkmate her opponent while down by a pawn. See if you can find the moves that helped Maltsevskaya win the $100 top women's prize.

Following April's first Bullet Brawl, Naroditsky is just six wins shy of overtaking Nakamura's 21 tournament victories, and with the latter preoccupied with his quest for Candidates' glory, Naroditsky will have every opportunity to reduce the deficit even more before his rival returns.

Naroditsky's 15th victory will be updated on the leaderboard shortly.

How to review games?
The games from this week's Bullet Brawl can be found 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:

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