Naroditsky Wins 23rd Bullet Brawl, Catches Nakamura For 2024 Victories

GM Daniel Naroditsky won his 23rd Bullet Brawl title by a 35-point margin over his closest rival, GM Hikaru Nakamura. Finishing with a 16-game winning streak, Naroditsky ended with 271 points to clinch the $400 first prize. Nakamura finished second with 236, taking home $250.

Neck and neck with GM Andrew Tang throughout the arena, GM Oleksandr Bortnyk inched ahead to grasp the $150 third prize while Tang won $100. IM Karina Ambartsumova scored 96 points to win the $100 best women's prize. Vahan Nalbandyan tiptoed ahead of the competition by just one point to win the community event.

The next Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, September 21, 2024, at noon ET/18:00 CEST.

Standings

(Full final standings here)

By the halfway point, Naroditsky had accumulated a 24-point over the field. He continued to stretch it as the tournament raged on. The key to Naroditsky's result was not just his 74 victories, but his ability to fit in more games than his competition. Completing 89 bullet games in total, he played four more than Nakamura and 11 more than third-place finisher, Bortnyk. 

Naroditsky especially added to his lead with games he won with most of his time still left on his clock. In his 26-move intuitive attacking victory vs. WCM Veronika Shubenkova, the American grandmaster checkmated with 43 seconds left over.

Naroditsky won seven miniatures with 50 seconds or more remaining on his clock. In an 18-move win vs. CM Wouter Terlouw, Naroditsky spent just 12 seconds to fuel his mating attack, starting with a bishop sacrifice to rip open the kingside.

Naroditsky closed out the arena with a 16-game winning streak and a 42-game undefeated streak, making it impossible for his rivals to even imagine catching him. Before the streak, it was Argentinian prodigy FM Faustino Oro who gave the popular streamer his last loss of the event. The 10-year-old swindled the tournament victor in a drawn rook ending. 

In their 67-move head-to-head game, Naroditsky defeated Nakamura due to speed alone. The world number-two successfully fought out a minor-piece ending to promote to an extra queen. Yet, in the end, Nakamura was unable to capture the last of Naroditsky's pawns before his time ran out. 

Nakamura scored 68 victories himself. When Bortnyk built up pressure on his kingside, Nakamura was able to turn the tables on the third-place finisher. 

All-Time Leaderboard

*Naroditsky's 23rd win will be added to the leaderboard shortly.

How to review games?
The games from this week's Bullet Brawl can be found here.

Bullet Brawl is an exciting 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