Bullet Brawl (Dec 23): Naroditsky Secures 10th Bullet Brawl Title

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GM Daniel Naroditsky has become the second player, along with GM Hikaru Nakamura, to win 10 or more Bullet Brawl‘s after posting a score of 272 in Saturday’s event, 54 points ahead of the second-placed IM Terry Renato and 78 ahead of third, IM Yoseph Taher.

74 wins, two draws, and eight losses made up Naroditsky’s performance in the two-hour arena that saw him bag the $400 first prize ahead of 103 titled players.

The top-scoring female player of the event was FM Anastasia Avramidou (81), who duked it out with Bullet Brawl regular IM Karina Ambartsumova (75) and eventually prevailed by a margin of six points. Cesar Talledo Lagos won the community event for the second week running with a score of 263.

The final Bullet Brawl arena of the year will take place on Saturday, December 30, 2023, at 1 p.m. ET/19:00 CEST.

Standings

Rank	Fed	Title	Name	Username	Rating	Score
1		GM	Daniel Naroditsky	DanielNaroditsky	3185	272
2		IM	Renato Terry	MITerryble	3095	218
3		IM	Yoseph Taher	yosephtaher	3006	194
4		GM	Alan Pichot	platy3	2946	164
5		GM	Christopher Yoo	ChristopherYoo	3028	160
6		IM	Tobias Kolle	Tobias_Koelle	2923	159
7		FM	Manu David	ManuDavid2910	2941	158
8		CM	Eqor Baskakov	stollenmonster	2959	154
9		FM	Dimitrios Ladopoulos	jimis98	2893	151
10		NM	Janak Awatramani	12teen	2951	142
11		IM	Seo Jungmin	seopie	2858	135
12		GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	Harsha_Bharathakoti	2965	132
13		FM	Dmitry Goltsev	GoltsevDmitry2000	2826	124
14		CM	Matfey Rogov	Statham_13	2750	120
15		GM	Jose Martinez	Jospem	3188	111
16		GM	Aman Hambleton	KNVB	2859	106
17		GM	Fidel Corrales Jiminez	gmcorrales	2752	105
18		CM	Andrey Ermolaev	PchelkinVK	2729	104
19		GM	Gata Kamsky	TigrVShlyape	2772	97
20		CM	Mykola Korchnskyi	nindjaxx8	2708	85

(Full final standings here.)

Since its inception back in January, Bullet Brawl has taken place on 32 occasions, and remarkably, 25 of these have been won by two players, Nakamura (15) and Naroditsky (10). While both have managed to dominate numerous editions, their juxtaposing styles and strategies have made for many interesting battles.

The longstanding bullet chess rivalry will trickle over into 2024. Image: Daniel Naroditsky/YouTube.

On Saturday, in a Nakamura-less event, Naroditsky showed just how quick he is by getting through a colossal 84 games, 13 more than his closest competitor Terry, who is no slouch on the pace front either.

With an all-time high bullet rating of 3553, it would be brave to back someone else over Naroditsky in a bullet arena. Photo: Benjamin Robson.

As Naroditsky tore through opponent after opponent, he quickly amassed a highlight reel of tactics, the best of which came against Taher and GM Alan Pichot.

Super GMs were also not immune to Naroditsky’s rampage and as part of his 31-game unbeaten streak in the middle stage of the tournament, the commentator knocked over the world number 16 GM Parham Maghsoodloo in 17 moves!

With many of the world’s top quick chess players traveling to Samarkand, Uzbekistan over Christmas and New Year for the 2023 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships, Bullet Brawl will be a little less top-heavy in the final event of 2023.

GM Magnus Carlsen is the top seed in the open rapid event. Image: Chess-results.com.

Chinese GMs Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi, and Lei Tingjie lead the women’s seedings. Image: Chess-results.com.

Though Naroditsky and Nakamura’s availability for the December 30 arena is unclear, the chances of a new winner being crowned are heightened by the clash and this should make for a blockbuster finish to a year of high-speed arenas.

Naroditsky’s win tally will tick over to 10 shortly.

How to review games?
The games from December’s third Bullet Brawl can be found here.

Bullet Brawl is an exciting new titled arena that features Chess.com’s top bullet specialists and now 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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