Bortnyk Battles His Way To 4th Bullet Brawl Title

[ad_1]

GM Oleksandr Bortnyk scooped up his fourth $400 Bullet Brawl win and moved into third place on the all-time winner’s list after scoring 227 points during 2024’s second edition. GM Daniel Naroditsky (223) and IM Yoseph Taher (191) were the Ukrainian’s main challengers but neither could hold pace with the energetic Ukrainian.

IM Karina Ambartsumova squeezed past FM Anastasia Avramidou and IM Polina Shuvalova by a margin of three points to take out the $100 best female prize, confirming this with a clutch win over FM Daniel Olivares in the final minute of the arena while Peru’s Cesar Talledo Lagos once again dominated the community event, scoring 73 wins, four draws, and nine losses en route to a score of 266.

The next Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, January 20, 2024, at 1 p.m. ET/19:00 CEST.

Standings

Rank	Fed	Title	Name	Username	Rating	Score
1		GM	Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3228	227
2		GM	DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3196	223
3		IM	yosephtaher	Yoseph Theolifus Taher	3078	191
4		GM	NikoTheodorou	Nikolas Theodorou	3120	184
5		GM	wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	3094	181
6		GM	mitrabhaa	Mitrabha Guha	2970	151
7		GM	vi_pranav	Pranav V	2993	150
8		GM	Janosik	Falko Bindrich	2939	138
9		IM	IM_ArthurDW08	Arthur De Winter	2861	129
10		GM	Baku_Boulevard	Rauf Mamedov	3134	126
11		FM	FaustinoOro	Faustino Oro	2890	122
12		GM	Durarbayli	Vasif Durarbayli	2884	121
13		IM	Airquake	MirosÅ‚aw Lewicki	2782	116
14		FM	NovozhilovSemen	Semen Novozhilov	2750	115
15		IM	jacky72	Mihnea Costachi	2803	110
16		CM	stollenmonster	Egor Baskakov	2868	110
17		GM	FGHSMN	Bharath Subramaniyam.H Harishankkar	2816	105
18		FM	ChessicallyInclined	Jason Morefield	2840	104
19		IM	Zurability	Zura Javakhadze	2766	103
20		FM	Gravity_Chess	Gabriel Arteaga	2850	95

(Full final standings here.)

Congrats to @BortnykChess on winning his fourth #BulletBrawl after a close race with Daniel Naroditsky! 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/hoe6m13WZz

— Chess.com (@chesscom) January 13, 2024

Twitch streamers’ iron grip on Chess.com’s weekly Bullet Brawl arenas has continued with Bortnyk becoming the latest player to win whilst broadcasting his thoughts live on his channel. Of the 36 arenas held since the event’s inception, only six unique winners have been crowned, and fascinatingly, all six have a streaming history.

GM Nihal Sarin, who took a long hiatus from streaming, recently began posting on YouTube again (note: Bortnyk’s fourth win will be added shortly).

Although Bortnyk scored fewer wins than the second-placed Naroditsky during Saturday’s event, losses and draws were rare for the Ukrainian as he prioritized his king’s safety and played at his usual lightning-quick pace.

While his king sat tucked away, the same could not be said for Bortnyk’s opponents, and many titled players, including GMs with ratings over 3000 had their kings chased to the middle of the board.

See if you can spot how Bortnyk stunned GM Mitrabha Guha on the 14th move of their encounter!

Two duels between Naroditsky and Bortnyk did little to separate the leaders on the standings although the eventual winner’s victory over his American rival was an instructive lesson regarding liquidation into a decisive endgame.

Battling against lag, Bortnyk held his nerve and procured an 11-game winning streak in the final 20 minutes of the event before losing his last game (which proved inconsequential) against IM Zurab Javakhadze.

Bortnyk’s streak included wins over Ambartsumova and FM Faustino Oro.

For Ambartsumova, positive scores against her usual rivals (1.5/2 against Avramidou and 2/2 against Shuvalova) laid the platform for a prize-winning run, and the 35-year-old IM barely put a foot wrong where tactics were concerned. This comes as no surprise for a player who boasts a 5-minute Puzzle Rush record of 52.