GM Hikaru Nakamura secured his second straight Bullet Brawl and $400 after scoring 251 points ahead of GMs Jose Martinez and Daniel Naroditsky on Saturday. With this victory, Nakamura has taken his live Bullet Brawl earnings to just over $10,000 in one year.
Taking out the $100 best women’s prize was FM Anastasia Avramidou who finished five points ahead of Georgia’s IM Meri Arabidze, while Community Brawl regular Cesar Frank Talledos Lagos won another edition of the untitled arena.
The next Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, May 11, 2024, at noon ET/18:00 CEST.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Name | Username | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura | Hikaru | 3305 | 251 | |
| 2 | GM | Jose Martinez | Jospem | 3190 | 238 | |
| 3 | GM | Daniel Naroditsky | DanielNaroditsky | 3194 | 232 | |
| 4 | IM | Renato Terry | MITerryble | 3116 | 205 | |
| 5 | IM | Yoseph Taher | yosephtaher | 2977 | 194 | |
| 6 | GM | Matthias Bluebaum | Msb2 | 3051 | 187 | |
| 7 | GM | Vugar Rasulov | vugarrasulov | 2954 | 167 | |
| 8 | GM | Thomas Beerdsen | kleinebeer98 | 2943 | 158 | |
| 9 | GM | Emin Ohanyan | OhanyanEminChess | 2992 | 154 | |
| 10 | IM | Kacper Drozdowski | Kacparov | 2949 | 141 | |
| 11 | FM | Dmitry Goltsev | GoltsevDmitry2000 | 2860 | 131 | |
| 12 | GM | Tuan Minh le | wonderfultime | 3082 | 131 | |
| 13 | IM | Marcos Lianes | ulises2013 | 2898 | 114 | |
| 14 | GM | Nikolas Theodorou | NikoTheodorou | 3024 | 110 | |
| 15 | CM | Huseyin Deveci | hsd2016 | 2665 | 108 | |
| 16 | GM | Leon Mendonca | LionTheLeon_06 | 2856 | 108 | |
| 17 | FM | Faustino Oro | FaustinoOro | 2912 | 107 | |
| 18 | NM | Noah Kim | Naoki | 2776 | 105 | |
| 19 | CM | Eqor Baskakov | stollenmonster | 2820 | 104 | |
| 20 | GM | Jose Cardoso | TheBigBoss04 | 2892 | 103 |
the #bulletbrawl king đź‘‘ pic.twitter.com/w84CE6w0HZ
— Chess.com (@chesscom) May 4, 2024
Bullet Brawl has become a cash cow for the king, Nakamura has made over $10,000 from the weekly arenas in one year. After announcing his intent to play and stream the event on Twitter, Nakamura joined the all-titled lineup minutes before the event began.
Stream starting now for @chesscom‘s Bullet Brawl! Turn up to see the battles go down!! https://t.co/8aLBKR31Tx pic.twitter.com/KacF1WTCjS
— Hikaru Nakamura (@GMHikaru) May 4, 2024
The scorecard for the bullet titan was 69 wins, six draws, and six losses. Of the wins, several vicious attacking efforts stand out. Against Vietnam’s GM Tuan Minh Le, the American highlighted the e6-pawn as untenable and sacrificed a knight to capitalize. The game has strategic similarities to “Dubov’s Immortal” from the Russian Championship Superfinal in 2020, though less spectacular.Â
Regardless of the openings selected by Nakamura’s opponents, the 23-time victor launched kingside assaults every time he played as White, often leading to checkmate in under 20 moves. Check out his games against the French Defense and the Sicilian Defense: Dragon Variation below for fresh attacking ideas.
One of the players who managed to stifle Nakamura’s run was the second-placed Martinez. Following an early win over Nakamura, the Mexico representative stayed in touch with the lead and achieved one of the toughest tasks in Bullet Brawl, finishing ahead of Naroditsky.
Martinez, who sits fourth on the all-time leaderboard, has a big month ahead as he will travel to Spain in June to face GM Vladimir Kramnik in “The Clash Of Claims,” where he will look to quash insinuations against his name.
The Clash of Claims
On June 7-9, in Madrid, Spain, Vladimir Kramnik will battle Jose Martinez (Jospem) in a 36-game blitz match.
18 games on a chess board.
18 games on laptops.A fight for integrity and fair play in chess.
See you in Spain. pic.twitter.com/E1Afsr9VG1
— GothamChess (@GothamChess) March 26, 2024
In July 2023, we reported that three things in life were certain: death, taxes, and Nakamura Bullet Brawl victories. For now, this report still rings true.
How to review games?
The games from this week’s Bullet Brawl can be found here.
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!
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