15-Year-Old Gurel Wins Bullet Brawl Ahead Of Tang, Naroditsky

Bullet Brawl saw the crowning of a new champion on Saturday after 15-year-old Turkish prodigy GM Ediz Gurel scored 265 points and finished ahead of American GMs Andrew Tang (261) and Daniel Naroditsky (211).

The winner of the $100 top women's prize with 103 points was WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya, while FIDE Instructor and Chess.com top blogger Moises Ford ousted Cesar Frank Talledo Lagos from the top spot in the community event.

The next Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, August 24, 2024, at noon ET/18:00 CEST.

Standings

Saturday's field was comprised of 140 masters ranging from NMs to super-GMs and illustrious luminaries such as GMs Tang, Naroditsky, Nihal Sarin, Matthias Bluebaum, and Eric Hansen flocked to take their shot at Bullet Brawl glory. However, one GM, who is less than half the age of many of his competitors, would rise above them all and claim his first crown... Gurel.

15-year-old Ediz Gurel wins his first #BulletBrawl 🏆

He finished above Andrew Tang and Daniel Naroditsky to claim the W! 🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/reVbZTggZT

— Chess.com (@chesscom) August 17, 2024

The 15-year-old Turkish prodigy is quickly becoming a household name in speed chess circles and has even drawn the interest of the former world champion GM Magnus Carlsen, who played five blitz games against Gurel on Chess.com earlier in the week following their clash at the 2024 World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships.

In Saturday's arena, Gurel took a page out of Naroditsky's playbook, squeezed in 82 games, and won 72 of them. Despite losing 10 games, just three of them were at the hands of players rated under 3000. And the reason for this? Most of his opponents under this rating couldn't keep up with his tactical precision and uncompromising style.

NM Michael Romero was one victim of Gurel and from the black side of the Vienna Game: Max Lange, Vienna Gambit his knight tango ended up looking more like a moonwalk.

Gurel's most important games were those against podium aspirants, and Tang was his chief competitor on Saturday. Though the score between them was 2-1 in Tang's favor, Gurel's conversion technique was instructive in his sole win.

The second-place finisher did get in on some of the fun as well and executed a puzzle-worthy assault using the Gibbins-Weidenhagen Gambit. See if you can work out the classic sacrifice Tang employed to secure a 13-move victory.

Tang has been somewhat unlucky in terms of Bullet Brawl victories and while the U.S. GM is ranked fifth with two wins on the all-time leaderboard, if he could turn half of his second-place finishes into wins, he would be in third ahead of GM Oleksandr Bortnyk.

All-Time Leaderboard

*Gurel's first win will be added shortly.

A spate of excellent results by Gurel and his 13-year-old countryman GM-elect Yaqiz Erdogmus bode well for Turkiye's national team. With the pair playing on the top boards for their country at the upcoming 2024 FIDE Chess Olympiad, it's realistic to predict that they might finish higher than their 23rd seeding.

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