GM Daniel Naroditsky has returned to the top spot in the latest edition of Bullet Brawl, two months after winning his last title. Naroditsky outpaced 105 titled players, including the second- and third-placed GM Oleksandr Bortnyk and IM Yoseph Taher, respectively, and posted a score of 185 to win the $400 first prize.
Poland’s WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya was one of 15 players able to score more than 100 points, and the 23-year-old was a worthy recipient of the $100 best women’s prize. Shixuan Xue also became the first woman to win the community event.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, July 26, at noon ET/17:00 CEST.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3269 | 185 | |
| 2 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3208 | 160 | |
| 3 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3120 | 146 | |
| 4 | GM | Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 3106 | 138 | |
| 5 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3083 | 134 | |
| 6 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3148 | 133 | |
| 7 | GM | Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3075 | 130 | |
| 8 | GM | ckgchess | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | 3022 | 129 | |
| 9 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3050 | 122 | |
| 10 | IM | Alonmindlin | Alon Mindlin | 2927 | 111 | |
| 11 | IM | FaustinoOro | Faustino Oro | 3051 | 111 | |
| 12 | IM | Aswathchess | Aswath S | 2857 | 111 | |
| 13 | IM | Gianmarco_es | Gianmarco Leiva | 2875 | 107 | |
| 14 | WGM | Sanyura | Aleksandra Maltsevskaya | 2836 | 106 | |
| 15 | CM | NikaVolkov | Nika Volkov | 2970 | 103 | |
| 16 | NM | iliachess2007 | Ilia Batorshyn | 2849 | 99 | |
| 17 | CM | beast_20_20 | Mummana Venkata Ruthvik | 2794 | 96 | |
| 18 | IM | Meri-Arabidze | Meri Arabidze | 2715 | 94 | |
| 19 | CM | JoeAssaad | Joe Assaad | 2784 | 92 | |
| 20 | IM | johnathan113 | Johnathan Bakalchuk | 2811 | 91 | |
(Full final standings here.)
Bullet Brawl has entered a new era where scores over 200 are becoming increasingly rare, thanks to the top-heavy field compositions that reduce how easily streaks can be maintained. GM Andrew Tang was the last player to score more than 200 points, and this occurred back in early June.
This also raises the stakes where blunders are concerned—a single mouse slip could mean a player is out of the running for first.
The top-10 finishers in Saturday’s arena comprised seven GMs: Naroditsky, Bortnyk, Sergei Zhigalko, Tuan Minh Le, Matthias Bluebaum, Cem Kaan Gokerkan, and Siva Movahed, as well as three IMs: Taher, Renato Terry, and Alon Mindlin. 61 rating points were the difference between the first and second seeds (Naroditsky and Bortnyk).
With the Las Vegas Freestyle Grand Slam running concurrently, Bullet Brawl’s most prolific winner, GM Hikaru Nakamura, was unable to play, allowing Naroditsky, who sits second on the all-time leaderboard, to assert his authority.
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 |
| Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Ediz Gurel | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 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 |
Naroditsky kicked off the event in style, grinding out a 60-move win over Romanian CM Robert Sava before setting up an artful mating net against CM Wang Ip Boris Chan. Impressively, Naroditsky resisted the temptation to play forcing moves and found the quickest checkmate possible.
Consecutive losses to Terry, Bortnyk, and one of bullet chess’s most dangerous CMs, Nika Volkov, threatened to derail Naroditsky’s tournament; however, he sprang back to life and notched a 10-game streak to reignite his chances of winning his 29th title.
Although many of Naroditsky’s games came down to the wire during this period, his best games featured razor-sharp tactics. See if you can find the knockout blow that he spotted against CM Mariano Calvo below.
Naroditsky struck again four games later, winning an exchange before using a middlegame rook lift to sow the seeds of a swift conversion while up an exchange against Tica.
In the end, the 11 games between Naroditsky and his main challenger, Bortnyk, helped Naroditsky get over the line. After four arena games, Bortnyk led 4-3, but a spirited 3/4 riposte by “The Prophet” gave him the buffer needed to claim the title.
Their second-to-last game required some finesse to convert and crushed any chance of a Bortnyk comeback.
With this victory, Naroditsky is one win shy of 30 titles, and there are no signs that his place on the all-time leaderboard is in danger, considering that his nearest competition has 18 fewer titles.
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!
Previous coverage:
