GM Daniel Naroditsky was the deserving winner of October’s first Bullet Brawl and the $400 first prize after he toppled 30 players with Chess.com bullet ratings over 3000 en route to a dominant victory.
Naroditsky scored 55/73 overall and accumulated a total of 171 points, 22 more than the second-placed GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, the $250 prize winner.
Meanwhile, GMs Sergei Zhigalko and Sina Movahed will receive $150 and $100 for third and fourth places, respectively, while FM Anastasia Avramidou will take home the $100 best women’s prize.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, October 11, at noon ET/17:00 CEST.
Standings
| Number | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3242 | 171 | |
| 2 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3282 | 149 | |
| 3 | GM | Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 3170 | 142 | |
| 4 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3220 | 138 | |
| 5 | GM | Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3187 | 132 | |
| 6 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3129 | 126 | |
| 7 | IM | FaustinoOro | Faustino Oro | 3099 | 125 | |
| 8 | FM | yavrukurt40 | Dincer Tasdogen | 3092 | 122 | |
| 9 | GM | amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 3085 | 117 | |
| 10 | GM | Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3101 | 116 | |
| 11 | GM | dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3100 | 114 | |
| 12 | FM | Bryanl106 | Bryan Enming Lin | 2986 | 113 | |
| 13 | FM | BardArtem | Artem Bardyk | 2997 | 109 | |
| 14 | IM | rezamahdavi2008 | Reza Mahdavi | 3088 | 108 | |
| 15 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3149 | 106 | |
| 16 | GM | tjychess | Jingyao Tin | 2988 | 105 | |
| 17 | GM | Salem-AR | Salem AR Saleh | 3086 | 104 | |
| 18 | CM | Nicki2013 | Nikolay Kleimenov | 2812 | 103 | |
| 19 | CM | calmberserk | Vihaan Jammalamadaka | 2812 | 103 | |
| 20 | IM | LiamPutnam2008 | Liam Putnam | 3214 | 97 |
(Full final standings here.)
With more than 150 titled players vying for upsets and victory each week, Bullet Brawl is rarely won easily by even the most credentialed bullet chess merchants; however, Naroditsky’s performance on Saturday was as commanding as they come.
Up against 23 opponents rated 3000+, including a horde of Iranian masters—GMs Parham Maghsoodloo, Amin Tabatabaei, Movahed, and IM Reza Mahdavi—as well as the prodigious IM Faustino Oro and previous Bullet Brawl winners such as GMs Bortnyk and Jose Martinez, Naroditsky had his work cut out but never looked in doubt.
Dubs for Danya in this weekend’s #BulletBrawl 🔥 pic.twitter.com/pvRmA1yGFg
— Chess.com (@chesscom) October 4, 2025
Pitted against Bortnyk and Mahdavi in the opening games, Naroditsky was hypervigilant. After confirming draws in both games, he posted a seven-game win streak and began his climb up the leaderboard.
Lying ahead was a familiar, albeit intimidating opponent, the five-time world champion and new father, GM Magnus Carlsen. The clash between them, which was a showdown in the Sicilian Defense: Open, Accelerated Dragon, Maroczy Bind Formation, was all going Carlsen’s way until an 11th-hour swindle saved the day.
Following this victory, Naroditsky went undefeated for another 14 games, racking up clean conversions interspersed with strategic draws.
Against Singaporean IM Zhenyong Jayden Wong, the back rank became the focal point of the game after Wong overcomplicated the position.
Soon after, Naroditsky punished Turkish FM Dincer Tasdogen for playing the anti-principled 19…Na6? in a middlegame that required absolute precision.
The lead Naroditsky built in the first half gave him a cushion in case he faltered, and his Charlotte Chess Center colleague and long-time Bullet Brawl rival Bortnyk did everything possible to try and make this happen.
Their final score was 5-4 in Bortnyk’s favor, although the gap between them was close enough that their head-to-head results were negligible in retrospect. One of the most interesting games between the pair saw Naroditsky win two pawns with a shrewd rook sacrifice before duly converting his material advantage into a win.
When the arena clock expired, Naroditsky had two more wins, seven more draws, and four fewer losses than Bortnyk. With no one else in sight, Naroditsky was crowned the winner for the 32nd time.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | 48 | 14 | 19 | 15 |
| GM Daniel Naroditsky | 32 | 8 | 14 | 10 |
| GM Oleksandr Bortnyk | 13 | 3 | 7 | 3 |
| GM Andrew Tang | 13 | 9 | 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!
Previous coverage:
