GM Daniel Naroditsky scooped up his 31st Bullet Brawl title and the event’s $400 first prize on Saturday after outpacing 119 titled players for the second week in a row. An electric 15/16 start helped the 29-year-old commentator amass an unassailable 158 points, 12 more than the second-placed GM Tuan Minh Le, who earned $250.
GM Matthias Bluebaum and IM Yoseph Taher rounded out the top four and will take home $150 and $100, respectively, while WFM Veronika Shubenkova claimed the $100 best women’s prize.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, September 6, at noon ET/17:00 CEST.
Standings
| Number | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3193 | 158 | |
| 2 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3216 | 149 | |
| 3 | GM | Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3170 | 148 | |
| 4 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3140 | 139 | |
| 5 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3144 | 136 | |
| 6 | GM | gurelediz | Ediz Gurel | 3175 | 136 | |
| 7 | GM | OhanyanEminChess | Emin Ohanyan | 3156 | 133 | |
| 8 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3205 | 126 | |
| 9 | GM | Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3089 | 122 | |
| 10 | IM | Kacparov | Kacper Drozdowski | 2999 | 114 | |
| 11 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3063 | 111 | |
| 12 | CM | NikaVolkov | Nika Volkov | 2990 | 109 | |
| 13 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3046 | 106 | |
| 14 | IM | lamomiajunior | Joaquin Fiorito | 2892 | 105 | |
| 15 | CM | calmberserk | Vihaan Jammalamadaka | 2920 | 103 | |
| 16 | WFM | Lady_Nika | Veronika Shubenkova | 2748 | 101 | |
| 17 | GM | Micki-taryan | Haik Martirosyan | 3031 | 101 | |
| 18 | GM | blitzking1729 | Srihari L R | 2900 | 101 | |
| 19 | CM | MVM2008 | Matei-Valeriu Mogirzan | 2783 | 100 | |
| 20 | IM | ProfessorChess101 | Yichen Han | 2901 | 99 | |
(Full final standings here.)
Six former winners—GMs Naroditsky, Andrew Tang, Oleksandr Bortnyk, Le, Ediz Gurel, and IM Taher—joined August’s last Bullet Brawl and, unsurprisingly, they all finished inside the top 10. Joining them were two-time European champion Bluebaum, GMs Emin Ohanyan and Haowen Xue, and Polish IM Kacper Drozdowski.
Despite the illustrious field, none could hold a candle to the 31-time winner, who flexed his proverbial muscles by posting a 16-game unbeaten streak at the start of the arena. Pragmatic play at supersonic speed was the focal point of Naroditsky’s performance.
In a game against CM Artur Ganiev, Naroditsky spotted an opportunity to exchange into a winning king and bishop vs. king and knight endgame. He then piled woe on Ganiev by procuring a passed pawn and tripling his opponent’s pawns, the latter of which prompted resignation. At the end of the game, Ganiev had 15 seconds left to Naroditsky’s 47.
Eventually, Naroditsky’s streak was snapped by Bortnyk after the Fort Knox Variation of the French Defense proved less impregnable than the real-life military base.
Dual losses to Dutch GM Thomas Beersden also slowed Naroditsky, but these became mere blips on a scorecard that read 50 wins, nine draws, and 16 losses by the end of the event.
Aside from Naroditsky, the chief contender for first place was Vietnamese GM Le; however, a crucial win for Naroditsky around the halfway point of the event against the popular content creator suppressed the likelihood of Le closing the gap.
Wins against other top players, such as Turkish prodigy Gurel, cemented his position on the throne—one game against Gurel came to an abrupt end after Naroditsky played the surprising 25.Rgh4!!, leaving his queen en prise and threatening checkmate.
Although Naroditsky had the win under lock and key with 15 minutes to go, he continued to notch Puzzle Rush-worthy finishes. In his third-to-last game, a classic checkmating pattern arose against Jamaica’s CM Akeem Brown, who graciously played on until the picturesque checkmate was confirmed.
With this being his 31st win, Naroditsky is now 15 behind GM Hikaru Nakamura on the all-time leaderboard. The latter’s surprise participation in the Louisiana State Championship 2025 prevented him from playing in Saturday’s event.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | 46 | 12 | 19 | 15 |
| GM Daniel Naroditsky | 31 | 7 | 14 | 10 |
| GM Oleksandr Bortnyk | 12 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| GM Andrew Tang | 12 | 8 | 4 | 0 |
| GM Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| GM Ediz Gurel | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| GM Sam Sevian | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Nihal Sarin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| GM Yagiz Erdogmus | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Alireza Firouzja | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Tuan Minh Le | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| IM Yoseph Taher | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| IM Reza Mahdavi | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
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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