Naroditsky Out-Brawls Hyperbullet Rivals

Days after his second-place finish in the Chess.com Hyperbullet Championship, GM Daniel Naroditsky finished atop June's first Bullet Brawl ahead of rival GMs Tuan Minh Le and Andrew Tang. After scoring 236 points in a run that included a precision-laden win over super-GM Anish Giri, Naroditsky was the deserving winner of the $400 first prize.

A duel for the $100 women's prize could only be determined by tiebreaks as WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya equaled FM Anastasia Avramidou's score of 91 but was ousted due to conceding more losses, while Cesar Frank Talledo Lagos bagged yet another community brawl title.

The next Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, June 8, 2024, at noon ET/18:00 CEST.

Standings

The stats that mattered for Naroditsky were 66 wins, five draws, and nine losses as he surged to victory ahead of 134 titled players in the 55th edition of Bullet Brawl on Saturday. Combined with GM Hikaru Nakamura, the ruthless duo has now won 42/55 events, or approximately 76 percent of all Bullet Brawls since its inception.

In the latest edition, Naroditsky announced his form in the first game, toppling the world number-15 Giri on the white side of the Alapin Sicilian Defense. The deft 25.Rxf6!! allowed Naroditsky to simplify into a winning endgame.

A single loss against IM Mykola Bortnyk was the only blight on Naroditsky's scorecard in the first hour, and the slip was quickly forgotten in a sea of tactical triumphs. One of the highlights of this period is a deconstruction of Avramidou's Modern Defense, where the American GM was able to win despite never possessing a material advantage.

With a huge buffer over the rest of the field, Naroditsky was able to coast to victory in a Nakaura-less field. The ease with which Naroditsky was able to win bodes well for his Chess.com Bullet Chess Championship ambitions, and in a week he will commence play as one of the four favorites alongside GM Magnus Carlsen, Nakamura, and GM Alireza Firouzja.

For those looking to improve their mouse skills in bullet chess, you needn't look further than the new Chess.com Hyperbullet Champion Tang who won 58 games, drew four, and lost 14 en route to a third-place finish and won $150 for his efforts.

While streaming the event on Twitch, Tang gave visual insight into how important predicting your opponent's moves and making safe pre-moves are in the fastest time controls while playing against Chessbrah GM Eric Hansen. 

With more than 100 titled players competing in Bullet Brawl every week, it is truly extraordinary that only seven unique players have won the title. While the names on the leaderboard are not surprising, the fact that occasionally participating super-GMs such as Carlsen, Giri, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave have yet to secure a title is a testament to the dominance of Nakamura and Naroditsky.

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

• • Announcing Chess.com Community Bullet Brawl Tournaments
  • Introducing Bullet Brawls And New Arena Options