Nakamura Outshines 8 Former Bullet Brawl Winners, Claims 34th Title
A spirited performance by GM Hikaru Nakamura in Saturday's Bullet Brawl saw him return to the throne and collect the $400 first prize after consecutive second-place finishes in November.
72 wins, 28 of which were part of a timely winning streak, helped Nakamura accrue 266 points, four more than 24-time winner GM Daniel Naroditsky. Third place was claimed by Turkish prodigy GM Ediz Gurel, who scored two wins over Nakamura in the event.
IM Karina Ambartsumova secured her fourth $100 best women's prize of the last five editions while Community Brawl regular "Macmasterr" added another title to his trophy cabinet.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, December 14, 2024, at noon ET/18:00 CEST.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3269 | 266 | |
| 2 | GM | DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3154 | 262 | |
| 3 | GM | gurelediz | Ediz Gurel | 3112 | 216 | |
| 4 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3215 | 211 | |
| 5 | GM | Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3188 | 204 | |
| 6 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3209 | 176 | |
| 7 | GM | Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 3089 | 165 | |
| 8 | GM | xiaotong2008 | Xiao Tong | 3005 | 151 | |
| 9 | GM | Genghis_K | Federico Perez Ponsa | 2987 | 144 | |
| 10 | FM | Dolphin_2010 | Aleksandr Usov | 3003 | 139 | |
| 11 | GM | hansen | Eric Hansen | 3001 | 137 | |
| 12 | GM | rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2963 | 121 | |
| 13 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3161 | 120 | |
| 14 | IM | Kacparov | Kacper Drozdowski | 2928 | 119 | |
| 15 | GM | ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 3078 | 116 | |
| 16 | CM | KogotBobra17 | Egor Koshulyan | 2801 | 116 | |
| 17 | FM | PoAslan | Atilla Kuru | 2810 | 116 | |
| 18 | IM | PiliposyanRobertChess | Robert Piliposyan | 2932 | 113 | |
| 19 | IM | FaustinoOro | Faustino Oro | 2938 | 111 | |
| 20 | FM | Artem_0degov | Artem Odegov | 2853 | 110 | |
197 titled players flocked to Chess.com's servers on Saturday for the 81st edition of Bullet Brawl, hoping to join an exclusive group of 11 top-flight players skillful and speedy enough to win one of these coveted weekly arenas.
It's a 34th #BulletBrawl win for @GMHikaru who pipped Daniel Naroditsky to the throne this weekend with 73.5/82! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/9TvKldC06A
— Chess.com (@chesscom) December 7, 2024
Saturday's event was particularly difficult to win given that nine former winners participated with a pack of GMs. Unsurprisingly, Nakamura and Naroditsky, a duo with 57 crowns between them, were joined by Gurel and Tang in a four-way race for first place.
Naroditsky led for much of the first hour, courtesy of his ability to consistently win games in fewer than 20 moves. Against Polish CM Piotr Sygulski, Naroditsky demonstrated this skill, pouncing on a blunder, promoting to a second queen, and checkmating by the 11th move!
Keeping pace with Naroditsky, Gurel benefitted from several wins against multi-time Bullet Brawl titlists. Playing Black against Nakamura's trusty Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack, Gurel navigated the opening with poise and struck while the iron was hot after Nakamura erred in the middlegame.
Plagued by time trouble and an unfavorable rook for a two-piece imbalance, Nakamura resigned early against the Turkish whiz kid, an astute choice in hindsight given the eventual proximity between the podium finalists.
Despite early setbacks, Nakamura stormed home in the second half of the event, dropping just three points in his last 50 games that allowed him to surge past first Gurel and then Naroditsky. Clutch endgames against content creator GM Eric Hansen and German IM Alexander Gelman ended up being crucial in terms of the scoreboard.
Against Gelman, Nakamura saved a "theoretically drawn" endgame to keep his streak alive.
Though it was played in the first quarter of the event, the sole head-to-head encounter between Nakamura and Naroditsky proved significant. As is often the case in games between the pair, a descent into pandemonium unfolded. While top-drawer intuition fueled the transition from middlegame to endgame, clarity was not realized until Nakamura snapped up Naroditsky's final pawn.
With 19 wins in 2024, Nakamura cannot mathematically be overtaken by Naroditsky (14 wins in 2024) as the best Bullet Brawl player of the year.
All-Time Leaderboard
*Nakamura's 34th win will be added 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!
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