16-year-old GM Ediz Gurel impressively scored 161 points in Saturday’s Bullet Brawl and 6/8 against 29-time winner GM Daniel Naroditsky to clinch his fourth career title and the $400 first prize.
Naroditsky and GM Andrew Tang challenged Gurel but couldn’t keep up with the Turkish prodigy, instead settling for the $250 and $150 second and third prizes, respectively.
A tight race between four players—IM Karina Ambartsumova, WIM Mitra Asgharzadeh, Veronika Shubenkova, and IM Meri Arabidze—for the $100 best women’s prize was won by Ambartsumova. “Adoubleedgedgame” won their debut title in the community event.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, Aug 2, at noon ET/17:00 CEST.
Standings
| Number | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | gurelediz | Ediz Gurel | 3290 | 161 | |
| 2 | GM | DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3225 | 153 | |
| 3 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3227 | 144 | |
| 4 | GM | Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3146 | 142 | |
| 5 | GM | Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3096 | 135 | |
| 6 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3037 | 126 | |
| 7 | FM | Schack-Hugo | Hugo Wernberg | 2822 | 111 | |
| 8 | IM | Aswathchess | Aswath S | 2901 | 108 | |
| 9 | IM | ProfessorChess101 | Yichen Han | 2818 | 108 | |
| 10 | IM | Sven_Tica | Sven Tica | 2839 | 107 | |
| 11 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3070 | 106 | |
| 12 | FM | pasteta13 | Mario Muskardin | 2722 | 101 | |
| 13 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3082 | 101 | |
| 14 | IM | blitzking1729 | Srihari L R | 2881 | 100 | |
| 15 | IM | karinachess1 | Karina Ambartsumova | 2741 | 100 | |
| 16 | WIM | mitraasz | Mitra Asgharzadeh | 2786 | 98 | |
| 17 | CM | Laurin_2009 | Laurin Jahnz | 2721 | 98 | |
| 18 | WFM | Lady_Nika | Veronika Shubenkova | 2666 | 96 | |
| 19 | IM | Meri-Arabidze | Meri Arabidze | 2719 | 93 | |
| 20 | FM | Aevengho | Aleksandre Edisherashvili | 2677 | 92 | |
(Full final standings here.)
Saturday’s Bullet Brawl was another low-scoring affair—just 15 of the 122 titled players broke the 100-point barrier. Gurel was the highest-rated player to enter; however, GMs Naroditsky, Tang, and Martinez, who boast a combined 44 titles, meant there was no clear favorite.
Gurel demonstrated his tactical prowess in the opening stages of the arena, winning his first seven games off the back of opportunism-laced creativity. His dominance was hardly surprising, given his recent 2810 performance rating in the French Team Championship.
German CM Simon Max Skembris was one of the seven to fall to Gurel. Skembris put up stiff resistance after castling queenside in the Caro-Kann Defense before falling victim to a punchy, puzzle-worthy sacrifice.
Following this, Gurel dropped several games, but made up for lost time by winning against four consecutive 2800+ players: IM Sven Tica, Martinez, Naroditsky, and GM Leon Livaic.
Gurel’s score against Naroditsky in the two-hour arena was particularly astonishing. He notched five wins, two draws, and conceded just one loss against the 29-time winner.
In their sixth game, Naroditsky barely put a foot wrong with Black against the Reti Opening: Nimzo-Larsen Variation but still lost, courtesy of Gurel’s menacing bishop pair.
Despite his lopsided results against Gurel, Naroditsky posted a score of 153 with 45 wins, nine draws, and 16 losses. Nevertheless, the American was denied any chance of claiming a 30th title after Gurel posted 11- and 15-game unbeaten streaks in the second half of the arena.
The Turkish whizz kid simply had the Midas touch on Saturday, and IM Renato Terry found out the hard way when he was put in zugzwang after a single mistake in an equal king and pawn ending.
With this victory, Gurel now shares fourth place on the all-time leaderboard. Due to his age, he is one of the most likely eventual successors to the 44-time winner, GM Hikaru Nakamura.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 44 | 10 | 19 | 15 |
| Daniel Naroditsky | 29 | 5 | 14 | 10 |
| Oleksandr Bortnyk | 12 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| Andrew Tang | 11 | 7 | 4 | 0 |
|
Ediz Gurel
|
4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Sam Sevian | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Yagiz Erdogmus | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Alireza Firouzja | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Nihal Sarin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Reza Mahdavi | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Tuan Minh Le | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Yoseph Taher | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
The best women’s prize was hotly contested on Saturday and saw a thrilling finish unfold—in the final game. Riding a nine-game unbeaten streak, Ambartsumova used momentum to win two pawns against IM Aswath S and never let go, snatching the $100 prize out of Asgharzadeh’s hands.
How to review games?
The games from this week’s Bullet Brawl can be found here.
Bullet Brawl is an exciting arena featuring Chess.com’s top bullet specialists. It takes place weekly on Saturdays. The format is a two-hour arena with a 1+0 time control; the prize fund is $1,000. 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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