Gurel Triumphs Over Erdogmus In Showdown Between Turkish Prodigies

16-year-old Turkish GM Ediz Gurel added a third Bullet Brawl title to his trophy cabinet on Saturday after a tense battle with his compatriot, 13-year-old GM Yagiz Erdogmus, and the nine-time Bullet Brawl winner, GM Andrew Tang.

Two hours of high-octane chess saw Gurel finish with a score of 222 (62 wins, four draws, and seven losses)—a 23-game unbeaten streak was at the core of his $400 performance.

Notching a score of 90 points, WCM Vesna Bogdanovic won the $100 best women's prize for the first time, outscoring IM Polina Shuvalova by a margin of three. In the community event, Sundram Kumar scored 71.5/78 to capture another title.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, April 12, at noon ET/17:00 CEST.

Standings

With 84 titles among them, GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Daniel Naroditsky, Oleksandr Bortnyk, and Tang were the firm favorites to win Saturday's 230-player-strong Bullet Brawl; however, an early exit for Nakamura, as well as the participation of 33 players with ratings over 2900, blew the event wide open.

Nakamura bounced to an early lead off the back of an impressive 20-game streak, scoring dual wins over Bortnyk and Erdogmus as well as a victory over Collegiate Chess League alumnus GM Nikolas Theodorou. Nakamura finished many of his games with more than 30 seconds left on the clock, thanks to opportunistic sacrifices. A piece sacrifice against FM Dusko Zmijanac best exemplified this.

Despite his fast start, Nakamura stated on his stream that he would leave the event early due to obligations for the forthcoming Freestyle Chess Grand Slam event in Paris.

As the halfway mark approached, a quartet of prodigies rose. Erdogmus, Gurel, FM Sergey Sklokin, and the 11-year-old "Messi of Chess" IM Faustino Oro bowled over countless GMs on their way to the top. The combined age of these players is 51, four years younger than the world number 15 GM Viswanathan Anand. In a duel with Bortnyk, Oro demonstrated how dangerous 11-year-old chess players can be in 2025.

While Oro was unable to ascend to the podium, Erdogmus and Gurel soon became locked in a three-way dogfight with Tang for first place. An 82-move game between Erdogmus and Tang was a crucial moment for all three players; Tang's flag fell in a position where he had checkmate in four moves. Bolstered by this, Erdogmus went on to win 19 consecutive games.

As impressive as Erdogmus' streak was, his compatriot Gurel managed to outdo him, scoring 22.5/23 around the same time. 

The pair eventually met twice in quick succession, and both games fell in favor of the older player—the latter was a Tal Variation-inspired Caro-Kann which spiraled into pandemonium in the first 10 moves.

Following this game, Gurel went on to score 20.5/23, confirming his third Bullet Brawl title in the last 12 months, which was later celebrated on Chess.com's Turkiye Twitter profile.

Bu hafta oynanan bullet brawl, kurşun satranç turnuvasını GM Ediz Gürel ve GM Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş birinci ve ikinci olarak tamamladı! pic.twitter.com/ce7VONfwLD

— Chess.com Türkçe (@chesscom_tr) April 5, 2025

Having posted strong performances in the Prague International Chess Festival and European Individual Championships in March, Gurel is now ranked inside the top 100 in the world and is the best player aged under 18. Excitingly, Gurel's chief competition appears to be Erdogmus, boding well for Turkiye's future Olympiad hopes.

All-Time Leaderboard

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