Bullet Brawl Feb. 14, 2026: Terry Fends Off Bortnyk, Secures 1st Bullet Brawl Title

Peruvian IM Renato Terry was crowned as a first-time Bullet Brawl victor on Saturday after he overcame a strong start from GM Oleksandr Bortnyk and posted a winning score of 147.

Terry, who is just the third non-GM to win an edition of Bullet Brawl, will receive $400 for his efforts, while Bortnyk, GM Jose Martinez, and GM Matthias Bluebaum will receive $250, $150, and $100, respectively.

The winner of the $100 best women’s prize was the 20th-placed, 15-year-old Iranian phenom, WIM Melika Mohammadi.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, Feb. 21, at 12 p.m. ET/18:00 CET.

Standings

(Full final standings here.)

The top seeds in Saturday’s Valentine’s Day Bullet Brawl were Terry, Martinez, Bortnyk, GM Tuan Minh Le, and IM Faustino Oro, and it was hardly surprising to see all of them finish inside the top 10 off the back of Romantic (pun intended) play. Just one player with a rating less than 3000, FM Dachey Lin, achieved a top-10 finish.

Following his comprehensive victory in the previous edition, Bortnyk strode into Saturday’s event brimming with confidence and barely put a foot wrong as he won his first 21 games.

One of the highlights of Bortnyk’s streak was a powerful kingside attack that he launched against the normally resolute FM Sergey Sklokin. Ignoring Sklokin’s attempts to distract him, Bortnyk landed blow after blow on his opponent and by the 25th move, checkmate was inevitable. 

During the final game of his streak, Bortnyk capitalized on Le’s move-seven blunder that cost him a pawn in the French Defense: Rubinstein, Blackburne Variation. Once he had gained a material advantage, the result never looked in doubt, though it wasn’t until move 66 that he delivered checkmate.

Meanwhile, Terry kept his chances of a first title alive by starting with 13.5/14. Oro was the only player able to hold him to a draw after Terry flagged while checkmating with a queen and king.

Terry would go on to post two unbeaten streaks of nine and 11 games while Bortnyk suffered four consecutive losses to GM Parham Maghsoodloo, Terry himself, GM Sergei Zhigalko, and Martinez.

The eventual winner’s score against Bortnyk is one of the key factors that led to his victory—the final score between them was 5.5-2.5 in favor of Terry. Three of these games lasted more than 70 moves, and each time their games went down to the wire, it was Terry who came out on top.

In the dying minutes of the arena, three players were still mathematically able to win: Terry, Bortnyk, and Martinez; however, Terry would cement his spot at the top with a barnstorming win over IM Reza Mahdavi.

Their 38-move duel in the Caro-Kann Defense featured three brilliant moves (two for Terry and one for Mahdavi) and ended in Mahdavi’s resignation after Terry’s consolidatory queen sacrifice.

With this victory, Terry joins five other players who have captured a single Bullet Brawl title.

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