Hyperbullet Champion Tang Secures Bullet Brawl Hat Trick

GM Andrew Tang has become the third player in Bullet Brawl history to secure a hat trick after the American topped the 200-player titled arena on Saturday with a score of 255 points. He seized the $400 first prize for the fifth time this year ahead of 27-time winner GM Daniel Naroditsky and 198 other titled players.

IM Renato Terry and GM Christopher Yoo finished third and fourth, winning $150 and $100, respectively, while FM Anastasia Avramidou's 18th-place finish saw her edge out IM Karina Ambartsumova to pick up the $100 best women's prize.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, March 29, at noon ET/17:00 CEST.

Standings

As arguably the world's fastest chess player, Tang has naturally been a force in Bullet Brawls of the past. At the start of 2025, he had four wins and numerous podium finishes to his name, but his win rate still paled in comparison to the 37- and 27-time winners, GM Hikaru Nakamura and Naroditsky, respectively.

However, Tang has started the year with a bang, winning 5/11 of the latest brawls, and now threatens to derail GM Oleksandr Bortnyk as the third most prolific player on the all-time leaderboard.

All-Time Leaderboard

Speed, precision, and a splash of unorthodoxy were the ingredients that led to Tang winning 70 games on Saturday. Although the tournament attracted many of the world's best bullet players, such as Bortnyk and GM Jeffery Xiong, Tang kept them in check.

18-year-old Armenian FM Edgar Hayrapetyan, who is ranked in the top 0.01 percent of Chess.com bullet chess players, was one of Tang's early victims and thanks to a ferocious kingside attack, the game lasted a mere 26 seconds.

Tang also posted several miniatures against players rated over 3000, the most impressive coming against GM Christopher Yoo, the 13th highest-rated bullet chess player on Chess.com. Dueling with him in the Classical Variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defense, Tang spent four seconds conceiving a brilliant knight sacrifice, allowing him to take the initiative and expose Black's king simultaneously. 

Naroditsky and Canadian IM Anthony Atanasov were the only players able to score positively against Tang, and the former defeated him twice. Naroditsky's first win over the eventual winner saw the players step away from their hyper-aggressive playing styles and churn out an endgame that stemmed from the Ponziani Opening.

Despite Naroditsky's ability to work through many games, he was unable to keep pace with Tang for the third week straight. A 14-game winning streak at the tail end of the event ensured that Naroditsky could not catch him.

With this victory, Tang is on the brink of becoming the second player to win four straight brawls. Should he win next week's event, he will earn a shot at breaking Nakamura's record for most wins in a row.

Bullet Brawl is an exciting titled arena that features Chess.com's top bullet specialists and takes place weekly on Saturdays. The format is a two-hour arena with a 1+0 time control; the prize fund is $1,000.

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:

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