Bortnyk Smashes Bullet Brawl Days After Titled Tuesday Victory

GM Oleksandr Bortnyk has turned a good week into a great one after winning his eighth Bullet Brawl by a 39-point margin and claiming the $400 first prize following a Titled Tuesday masterclass earlier in the week. GMs Daniel Naroditsky and Christopher Yoo, who finished second and third respectively, won more than 80 percent of their games but couldn't keep up with Bortnyk's electric pace.

Two points made all the difference for the $100 best women's prize, and it was IM Karina Ambartsumova who kept her nose in front of WFM Veronika Shubenkova, while North Macedonian regular "Macmasterr" finished first in the community event.

The next Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, October 12, 2024, at noon ET/18:00 CEST.

Standings

Saturday's arena was brimming with young talent including GM Ediz Gurel; U.S. stars Woo, GM Andy Woodward, and FM Tanitoluwa Adewumi; as well as "the Messi of Chess," FM Faustino Oro. Even when combining all six of these players' ages, the world's oldest living GM, German Klaus Darga, has seven more years of life experience. 

While the Chess.com bullet ratings of several of these players are well over 3000, the experience of players like Bortnyk and Naroditsky shone through in the latest Brawl.

A loss to GM Tuan Minh Le in the first game seemed to galvanize Bortnyk, who responded by hammering the h-files of his subsequent opponents, and he soon built a highlight reel of miniatures.

If you have any doubts about whether the Jobava London System is a reasonable opening choice in bullet chess, Bortnyk's game against NM Naveen Prabhu should squash them.

Unusually, Bortnyk did not face Naroditsky during the two-hour arena and only played Yoo once (which fell in favor of the eventual winner), meaning that the most dangerous threat to his title ended up being his older brother!

In his two games against Oleksandr Bortnyk, IM Mykola Bortnyk admirably showed no favoritism toward his brother and scored 1.5/2. In their draw, Mykola played on for 56 moves until lone kings remained on the board, consuming valuable seconds on the arena clock.

In the end, a 17-game streak by Bortnyk to finish the arena opened up a sizeable gap between himself and Naroditsky.

With this being his eighth title, the Ukrainian-born GM has solidified his spot as the third most successful Bullet Brawler after Nakamura and Naroditsky.

All-Time Leaderboard

*Bortnyk's eighth win will be added shortly.

Bullet Brawl is an exciting 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:

• • Announcing Chess.com Community Bullet Brawl Tournaments
  • Introducing Bullet Brawls And New Arena Options