Nakamura Tops Field Featuring Carlsen, Naroditsky, Keymer

GM Hikaru Nakamura's Bullet Brawl rampage continued on Saturday with another $400 performance in a two-hour arena that featured the likes of GMs Magnus Carlsen and Vincent Keymer. Scoring 232, the 2024 Candidates Tournament hopeful was challenged by GMs Jose Martinez and Daniel Naroditsky, who finished second and third respectively.

GM Harika Dronavalli was the top-performing women's player in the event, and she secured the $100 prize after eclipsing FM Anastasia Avramidou on tiebreak and IM Meri Arabidze's score by a single win, while "advancedrook" convincingly won the community event. 

March's final Bullet Brawl will occur on Saturday, March 30, 2024, at noon ET/18:00 CEST.

Standings

In this week's Bullet Brawl, 156 titled players contested. The increase in participation was potentially driven by the appearance of the five-time world champion Carlsen, who hadn't played in the arena for several months. While Nakamura cited this iteration as a "tough bullet brawl," this did little to stifle him en route to back-to-back titles and his 21st in Bullet Brawl history.

Back-to-back #BulletBrawl wins for @GMHikaru 🔥🔥

Unstoppable. pic.twitter.com/72nqL6DKFQ

— Chess.com (@chesscom) March 23, 2024

To kick off the event, the American GM scored 10 consecutive wins and showed that a one-pawn advantage is enough to dispatch a super-GM. Capitalizing on Keymer's erroneous 12...Bg4? in the Caro-Kann Defense, Nakamura confidently liquidated into an ending and forced his opponent's resignation after using just 21 seconds on the clock.

A slashing kingside attack two games later against Arabidze made it clear that Nakamura had picked up right where he had left off seven days ago. 

With 15 minutes left on the arena clock, a showdown between Nakamura and Martinez effectively decided the tournament victor. Playing with the black pieces, Martinez opted for the unorthodox St. George Defense and managed to procure an equal endgame before ultimately blundering a knight.

The U.S.'s newest GM-elect, 13-year-old Andy Woodward, was heavily involved at the top end of Saturday's event, and his sixth-place finish means that he was paired against many of the world's top bullet chess players including Nakamura and Carlsen and even affected the podium courtesy of a win over Martinez.

Though he could not stop Nakamura from running amok, the Gotham Knight's representative did manage to upset Carlsen in an endgame where the Norwegian's exposed king led to the loss of his queen.

Having scored 4/10 in his games against the former world champion in online games, Woodward undoubtedly has a bright future ahead.

The 2024 Candidates Tournament is now just 10 days away, and Nakamura has shown no signs of shying away from online chess or quicker time controls. The late GM Bobby Fischer once said "Blitz chess kills your ideas," but it seems as though Nakamura is on a mission to prove him wrong.

Whether he plays March's final Bullet Brawl four days from the Candidates is yet to be seen. However, it would certainly force pundits to reconsider their position on the effect of quick chess on classical if he went on to win.

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