Dynamic Chess Earns Mahdavi Maiden Bullet Brawl Title

Newly minted IM Reza Mahdavi became the 13th player and the second IM to win an edition of Bullet Brawl after outclassing 175 titled players in Saturday's event. Mahdavi posted a scorching 62.5/73, which earned him a final score of 221 and saw him finish ahead of 10-time winner GM Andrew Tang and the reigning European champion, GM Matthias Bluebaum.

FM Anastasia Avramidou won the $100 best women's prize for the third week running, while Sundram Kumar clinched the 347-player strong community event by a four-point margin.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, June 7, at noon ET/17:00 CEST.

Standings

(Full final standings here.)

May's final Bullet Brawl was as much of a slugfest as any previous edition, despite the absence of the 40-time winner GM Hikaru Nakamura due to the concurrently running Norway Chess super-tournament. GMs Yagiz Erdogmus, Jose Martinez, Tang, Bluebaum, and IM Renato Terry comprised a formidable group of top seeds with ratings over 3100, closely followed by a pack of 3000-rated players who ensured there were no firm favorites.

One player did manage to rise above the noise and show enough consistency to win this week's Brawl by 10 points—Iran's breakout talent, Mahdavi. While the 17-year-old may not be a household name yet, this is hardly his first major triumph—he won the late Titled Tuesday event on December 24, 2024, and defeated world number-six GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov at the Qatar Masters in the same month.

A strong start was the catalyst for Mahdavi's superb performance, and a 25-game streak early on pushed him into the lead.

Mahdavi was unflinching in the face of danger and welcomed turmoil, often castling opposite sides from his opponents and launching double-edged kingside attacks. GM Martyn Kravtsiv was one such victim of this uncompromising play—a multipurpose brilliancy on move 23 stunned him into resignation. 

Though Mahdavi had broken away from the pack, Tang and Bluebaum bit at his heels throughout the two-hour arena and forced him to keep up the pace.

Holding a 16-point lead at the halfway point, Mahdavi then came up against his closest challenger, Tang, and after hanging the key e5-pawn on the white side of the French Defense, his streak was snapped.

The pair played each other on two later occasions. In the first, a Tang flagfall on move 90 ended the game, while in the second, Mahdavi capitalized on a Tang blunder when the latter was up by three pawns.

After toppling his nearest rival, Mahdavi continued to play dynamically until the arena clock expired, even risking it all in his penultimate game against Moldovan FM Semion Sapocinic. Game Review shows a colorful mix of blunders and brilliancies on both sides.

Aside from IM Yoseph Taher, Mahdavi is the only IM to win an edition of Bullet Brawl. Suffice it to say, if his current over-the-board trajectory continues, his IM title will be a short-lived stepping stone to chess's most coveted title.

All-Time Leaderboard

Bullet Brawl is an exciting arena featuring Chess.com's top bullet specialists. It takes place weekly on Saturdays. The format is a two-hour arena with a 1+0 time control; the prize fund is $1,000. 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