Martinez Slam-Dunks Second Bullet Brawl Title

GM Jose Martinez won his second Bullet Brawl crown and $1,000 on Saturday with an imperious 209 points, eclipsing his nearest challengers, the second and third-placed GMs Sergei Zhigalko (190) and Andrew Tang (180) by multiple wins.

In a May edition that didn’t feature the two-time winner, GM Hikaru Nakamura, Martinez was able to stamp his authority over the field with 61 wins, six draws, and 13 losses in the two-hour arena. IM Karina Ambartsumova of Russia was the top-performing women’s player and won $100.

Held alongside the event for titled players, Community Bullet Brawl saw its inaugural tournament won by Brazilian member “GYG,” who scored 35 wins and just three losses en route to victory.

The next Bullet Brawl event will take place on June 24, 2023, at 10.00 a.m. PT/19:00 CEST.

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

Martinez started May’s Bullet Brawl as he did in the other editions with a blistering win streak. For the first 20 games of the event, the Peruvian was unstoppable and even scored wins against GMs Rasmus Svane, Tuan Minh Le, Benjamin Bok, and Tang.

A snapshot of the winner’s unbeaten start.

Despite super-GMs like Fabiano Caruana and Dmitry Andreikin gracing the field, Martinez was able to oust them on the leaderboard due to his speed of play and ability to finish more games. Martinez’s win over IM Jonny Cueto is a fine example of this arena strategy.

The eventual second-placed Zhigalko was hot on the heels of Martinez for much of the event and managed to defeat former world number-12 blitz player Andreikin in three out of four of their encounters, as well as GM Pranav Anand. When facing each other though, Martinez was simply the quicker player, winning both games.

With less than 30 minutes left on the arena clock, the two paired and reached a drawn endgame. When 10 seconds behind on the clock, Zhigalko made the blunder 40.Kg6??, losing to a tactic that Martinez found instantly and dashing any chance of a comeback.

One of the outstanding performances of the tournament is undoubtedly Kazakh FM Arystanby Isanzhulov. He was able to dispatch Pranav, Bok, and others on his way to a score of 106 (34 wins, two draws, and 10 losses). See if you can find how Arysya finished the job against Andreikin after a move-20 blunder!

Because Martinez and Nakamura have dominated the first four editions of Bullet Brawl, it will be interesting to see how this rivalry develops and whether any other notable speedsters will join the fray in June.

Standings

Rank	Fed	Title	Name	Username	Rating	Score
1		GM	Jose Martinez	Jospem	3129	209
2		GM	Sergei Zhigalko	Zhigalko_Sergei	3106	109
3		GM	Andrew Tang	penguimgm1	3128	180
4		GM	Rasmus Svane	rasmussvane	3049	168
5		IM	Terry Renato	MITerryble	3077	160
6		GM	Tuan Minh Le	wonderfutime	3130	154
7		GM	Nitzan Steinberg	Nitzan_Steinberg	2898	136
8		IM	Matvey Galchenko	MatthewG-p4p	2948	133
9		GM	Sanan Sjugirov	Sanan_Sjugirov	2903	126
10		GM	Matthias Bluebaum	Msb2	3023	125
11		GM	Benjamin Bok	GMBenjaminBok	2939	122
12		FM		Arysya	2881	106
13		FM	Reza Mahdavi	rezamahdavi2008	2910	105
14		GM		fizmat_64	2886	101
15		GM	Dmitry Andreikin	FairChess_on_YouTube	2934	101
16		NM	Janak Awatramani	12teen	2886	99
17		GM	Fabiano Caruana	FabianoCaruana	3030	98
18		FM	Artem Odegov	Artem_0degov	2803	96
19		GM	Aman Hambleton	KNVB	2880	92
20		NM	Leonid Starozhilov	Leonid_Starozhilov	2773	91

Bullet Brawl is an exciting new titled arena that features Chess.com’s top bullet specialists on the last Saturday of every month. The format is a two-hour arena with a 1+0 time control with a $2,500 prize fund.

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:

Source link