Nihal scored a round 200 points in Saturday's Bullet Brawl. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Nihal Streams For First Time in 3 Years, Wins In Bullet Brawl Masterclass

FM JackRodgers

Updated: Sep 11, 2023, 11:52 AM | 24 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Nihal Sarin claimed his first Bullet Brawl title on Saturday and scooped the $400 first prize after accruing 200 points in the two-hour arena, seven points ahead of the two-time winner GM Jose Martinez.

GM Oleksandr Bortnyk outlasted GMs Renato Terry and Aram Hakobyan by a single point to claim the $150 prize for third place while the $100 best female prize was taken by Greece's FM Anastasia Avramidou for the second week in a row.

In the community event, "advancedrook" once again finished atop the leaderboard but only did so by a single point, having been challenged all the way by Turkiye's Umut Behram Can.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will take place next week on Saturday, September 16, 2023, at 1 p.m. ET/19:00 CEST.

How to review games?
The games from September's second Bullet Brawl can be found here.

Congrats @NihalSarin on winning this week's #BulletBrawl Arena! 💥👏 pic.twitter.com/aL28XQYtKl
— Chess.com (@chesscom) September 9, 2023

Nihal has long since floated near the top of the bullet chess leaderboard on Chess.com and on Saturday he showed his strength, scoring 61/70 with 57 wins and only five losses in the arena. With 128 titled players in the field, the Indian prodigy's start was particularly impressive. Following a draw with the second-seed Bortnyk in the first game, Nihal went on a 16-game undefeated streak.

Nihal later defeated Bortnyk as well as GMs Vugar Rasulov, Awonder Liang, Martinez, and Pranesh M. during the streak. Image: Chess.com.

Nihal's performance was marked by his defensive prowess, and at numerous points in the event, he had to defend against brilliant moves by his opponents. Interestingly, Nihal's own "brilliant" moves (according to Chess.com's Game Review) were few and far between, and the Indian GM seemed to prioritize consistency throughout the event. In one of his wins over Bortnyk, Nihal managed to find two extraordinary tactical shots to claim victory.

With Martinez breathing down his neck, Nihal looked to seal the event with a win over Chile's IM Daniel Barria and managed to do so in sensational style. Forcing his opponent's king forward, the Indian GM built a mating net and forced resignation having used just 17 seconds of his time.

For Martinez, earlier losses at the hands of the eventual winner, as well as two defeats at the hands of Bortnyk and GM Alan Pichot, left him just shy of Nihal's score. As the arena clock drained, the experienced Martinez did his best to dispatch as many opponents as he could in order to challenge Nihal's lead but was hindered by their resilience.

Avramidou's second consecutive win of the female prize was convincing in Saturday's event. The Greek FM's 87 points allowed her to finish nine points ahead of the second-place IM Karina Ambartsumova.

Avramidou and Ambartsumova finished 28th and 35th, respectively. Image: Chess.com.

One of the crucial moments for Avramidou was her upset win against GM Guha Mitrabha, where she capitalized on an endgame blunder, played out the knight and pawn ending in less than 10 seconds, and checkmated her Indian opponent with 0.8 seconds left on the clock.

Standings

Rank	Fed	Title	Name	Username	Rating	Score
1		GM	Nihal Sarin	nihalsarin	3209	200
2		GM	Jose Martinez	Jospem	3150	193
3		GM	Oleksandr Bortnyk	Oleksandr_Bortnyk	3126	162
4		IM	Renato Terry	MITerryble	3027	161
5		GM	Aram Hakobyan	Njal28	3037	161
6		GM	Alan Pichot	platy3	3031	159
7		GM	Pranesh M	artooon	2959	152
8		GM	Amin Tabatabaei	amintabatabaei	3092	148
9		GM	Rasmus Svane	rasmussvane	2976	139
10		FM	Toivo Keinanen	ToivoK3	3001	138
11		GM	Hans Niemann	HansOnTwitch	3047	134
12		GM	Frederik Svane	frederiksvane	2989	130
13		GM	S.L. Narayanan	IndianLad	2985	121
14		GM	Dmitrij Kollars	GM_dmitrij	3000	119
15		FM	Eray Kilic	DonkyDonkyDonkey	2954	116
16		GM	Raja Rithvik R	starworld123	2865	112
17		IM	Mahel Boyer	kingofthenil	2816	111
18		CM	Eqor Baskakov	stollenmonster	2827	111
19		IM	Ediz Gurel	gurelediz	2988	110
20		IM	Deniz Ozen	denizozen	2987	110

Bullet Brawl is an exciting new titled arena that features Chess.com's top bullet specialists and now takes place weekly on Saturdays. The format is a two-hour arena with a 1+0 time control; the prize fund is $2,500.

Much 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:

Nihal Streams For First Time in 3 Years, Wins In Bullet Brawl Masterclass

Martinez Captures 4th Bullet Brawl Title Ahead Of Nakamura, Naroditsky, Tang

Firouzja Posts 42-Game Streak, Outpaces Nakamura