Tang Denies Hat Trick For Bortnyk, Premoves To 10th Title

GM Andrew Tang won his 10th Bullet Brawl title and the $400 first prize on Saturday after one of the quickest finishes in the event's history. A 17-game unbeaten streak at the tail end of the arena helped him eclipse GM Oleksandr Bortnyk by eight points.

IM Renato Terry and GM Daniel Naroditsky won $150 and $100 respectively for third and fourth places, while Georgian IM Meri Arabidze scored one more point than IM Karina Ambartsumova to secure the best women's prize.

In the community event, Sundram Kumar scored 79.5/83 and posted a commanding final score of 302—77 points ahead of second place.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, May 3, at noon ET/17:00 CEST.

Standings

(Full final standings here.)

178 titled players participated in Saturday's brawl, and among them were no fewer than eight former winners: GMs Naroditsky, Bortnyk, Tang, Jose Martinez, Sam Sevian, Yagiz Erdogmus, Tuan Minh Le, and IM Yoseph Taher. 14-year-old GM Sina Movahed also loomed as a threat after finishing first ahead of GM Magnus Carlsen in the most recent edition of Freestyle Friday.

Chasing his third straight victory, Bortnyk opened the arena strongly, breaking away from the pack along with Terry and Naroditsky. The most important win for Bortnyk during this period came against Tang, whose position turned into a "knightmare" after he missed an opportunity to trade pieces.

While Bortnyk was able to score 2.5/3 against Tang during the arena, key losses to GM Sergei Zhigalko, Terry, and FM Anastasia Avramidou kept a glimmer of hope alive for Tang.

Tang's rise to the top was anomalous, and the American seemed intent on getting through a record-breaking volume of games and proving that sometimes quantity trumps quality. Although he lost a total of 15 games (eight more than Bortnyk, nine more than Terry, and three more than Naroditsky), he worked his way through 84 games and won 65 of them. For reference, Bortnyk played 10 fewer games.

Tang lured many of his opponents into premove duels and, incredibly, toppled many of them using fewer than 15 seconds on the clock. One of Tang's victims was Erdogmus, stunned by his blistering pace.

In the second half of the arena, Tang notched 41 wins, conceded just three draws, and lost two games. Despite his high-speed play, the victor's games were still full of picturesque tactical flourishes.

See if you can spot the winning move that Tang played in less than one second against FM Attila Jr. Forgacs below.

To cement victory, Tang finished the event with two consecutive four-move checkmates against an unsuspecting IM and WFM. Bortnyk, Terry, and Naroditsky all finished with scores above 200, but simply put, they could not keep up with Tang. 

With six Bullet Brawl titles to his name in 2025, Tang is the player to beat, and his hyperbullet-inspired strategy might force regular titlists to reconsider their approaches to the weekly arena.

All-Time Leaderboard

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:

• • Announcing Chess.com Community Bullet Brawl Tournaments
  • Introducing Bullet Brawls And New Arena Options