Naroditsky Secures 5th Bullet Brawl Title

GM Daniel Naroditsky was crowned as the winner of September’s last Bullet Brawl after amassing a score of 288, 54 points ahead of the second-placed GM Hikaru Nakamura and third-placed GM Pranav Venkatesh. The total of 78 wins, three draws, and six losses was enough for the energetic commentator to claim $400, his fifth title, and his rightful spot in second place on the all-time leaderboard.

The $100 prize for the top-scoring female was won by a new winner—IM Tatjana Vasilevich, who finished 32nd overall, while the community event was topped by user “GrandMalakidis.”

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, October 7, 2023, at 1 p.m. ET/19:00 CEST.

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

One of the general requisites for success in Bullet Brawl is producing a reasonable score against the 10-time victor Nakamura. On Saturday, Naroditsky procured a par score of 1.5/3 against the often indomitable speed demon.

Naroditsky recovered well after losing his first game to Nakamura. Image: Chess.com.

His sole win over Nakamura sprouted from the Jobava London System, a setup that Naroditsky has used to quickly topple GM-level opponents in recent editions of Bullet Brawl.

Compared to Nakamura and Pranav, Naroditsky also managed to complete more games—87 games to their 80 and 78 respectively. The reason for this is fairly straightforward: Naroditsky was able to win many of his games in less than 20 moves and when they did take longer, the American GM often found himself with plenty of time spare on the clock.

See if you can find the tactics in the positions below that helped Naroditsky win efficiently.

Though the next puzzle does not result in significant material gain or a checkmate, it is an important intermezzo that gave Naroditsky an edge.

September’s fifth edition of Bullet Brawl also saw the emergence of a star of the future, the 16-year-old Indian GM Pranav. For his efforts in the event, the champion of the 2022 Challengers Chess Tour won $150 and showcased his uncompromising style in a 16-move miniature against IM Karina Ambartsumova.

With its 20th edition looming, Bullet Brawl has still seen just five unique winners, thanks to Nakamura’s and Naroditsky’s consistent domination. Growing in popularity among titled players each week, though, it is only a matter of time until a new winner emerges to claim the lion’s share of the $1,000 prize fund.

The exclusive group of Bullet Brawl winners. Image: Chess.com.

Standings

Rank	Fed	Title	Name	Username	Rating	Score
1		GM	Daniel Naroditsky	DanielNaroditsky	3288	288
2		GM	Hikaru Nakamura	Hikaru	3278	234
3		GM	Pranav Venkatesh	vi_pranav	3060	209
4		GM	Oleksandr Bortnyk	Oleksandr_Bortnyk	3170	194
5		GM	Jose Martinez	Jospem	3089	191
6		GM	Andrew Tang	penguingm1	3101	167
7		GM	Dmitry Andreikin	FairChess_on_YouTube	3009	153
8		GM	S.L. Naryanan	IndianLad	2993	151
9		IM	Matvey Galchenko	MatthewG-p4p	3013	148
10		FM	Arthur De Winter	CrazyAdvenTures	2859	135
11		GM	David Paravyan	dropstoneDP	3034	135
12		GM	Andrew Hong	SpeedofLight10	2837	131
13		GM	Leon Livaic	Elsa167	2897	129
14		GM	Sergei Zhigalko	Zhigalko_Sergei	3034	126
15		IM	Kacper Drozdowski	Kacparov	2906	123
16		GM	Vasif Durarbayli	Durarbayli	2874	117
17		GM		sumopork	2854	115
18		FM	Petros Trimitzios	TrimitziosP7	2927	113
19		CM	Eqor Baskakov	stollenmonster	2814	111
20		GM	Eric Hansen	hansen	2882	110

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!

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