Nakamura Wins Second Bullet Brawl
GM Hikaru Nakamura was the convincing winner of the second edition of Chess.com's newest titled arena, Bullet Brawl, after scoring 65 wins, four draws, and 12 losses en route to claiming the $1,000 prize for first.
Familiar faces in GMs Daniel Naroditsky and Jose Martinez Alcantara round out the podium of the two-hour, 1+0 event that brought together many of the world's top bullet enthusiasts for a tournament full of swashbuckling tactics, time scrambles, and swindles.
The next Bullet Brawl event will take place on March 25, 2023, at 10.00 a.m. PT/20:00 CET.
How to review games?
The games from the second Bullet Brawl can be found here.
Another weekend, another Bullet Brawl W for @GMHikaru 🔥 pic.twitter.com/yJFVJyx1Ct
— Chess.com (@chesscom) February 26, 2023
Despite his busy schedule of late, Nakamura managed to add another online tournament victory to his ever-growing trophy cabinet. Over the two-hour event, several players, including GMs Haik Martirosyan, Sergei Zhigalko, and Chessbrah's GM Aman Hambleton, managed to cause the American number-one some problems but in the end, Nakamura's ability to stay cool under pressure allowed him to win the majority of his games.
One such moment, which has garnered over 3,500 views (at the time of writing), involved a ridiculous swindle against NM "chesselephant" where Nakamura used his sole rook to not only defend against his opponent's rook and two connected pawns but also to execute a pre-move trick that ended in checkmate.
Taking a day off from commentary duties, Naroditsky managed to come in second place and bag $750 with 60 wins, many of which he secured as quickly as possible to stay in touch with Nakamura on the leaderboard. In a flashy show of the power of pattern recognition, one of Naroditsky's most impressive conversions included five straight pre-moves that led to a forced checkmate.
While Naroditsky was able to push out to an early lead, his first-place hopes were dashed during several encounters with Nakamura where he fell just short of snapping the eventual champion's win streak.
Standings
| Number | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3319 | 233 | |
| 2 | GM | DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3204 | 203 | |
| 3 | GM | Jospem | Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara | 3086 | 198 | |
| 4 | GM | Genghis_K | Federico Perez Ponsa | 3134 | 195 | |
| 5 | GM | NikoTheodorou | Nikolas Theodorou | 3042 | 179 | |
| 6 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3147 | 179 | |
| 7 | FM | rezamahdavi2008 | Reza Mahdavi | 2985 | 175 | |
| 8 | GM | Salem-AR | Salem AR Saleh | 3099 | 165 | |
| 9 | NM | 12teen | Janak Awatramani | 2908 | 147 | |
| 10 | GM | platy3 | Alan Pichot | 3063 | 142 | |
| 11 | GM | Man-Chuk | Manuel Petrosyan | 2943 | 130 | |
| 12 | GM | FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3036 | 130 | |
| 13 | GM | Real_OceanStorm | Yury Piskov | 2832 | 122 | |
| 14 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3110 | 122 | |
| 15 | GM | Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 3091 | 122 | |
| 16 | FM | TrimitziosP7 | Petros Trimitzios | 2949 | 118 | |
| 17 | IM | PLAYER_2006_M | Mukhiddin Madaminov | 2878 | 117 | |
| 18 | GM | Micki-taryan | Haik Martirosyan | 2982 | 116 | |
| 19 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3025 | 112 | |
| 20 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3219 | 107 | |
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 is expected to feature top GMs, including Hikaru Nakamura, Daniel Naroditsky, Andrew Tang, Tuan Minh Le, and many more!
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