Martinez Scorches 59 Opponents In 2 Hours
GM Jose Martinez was crowned as the winner and won $1,000 in the March edition of Chess.com's newest titled arena, Bullet Brawl, after winning 59 of his 74 games during the two-hour event. Ukraine's GM Oleksandr Bortnyk and Armenian IM Emin Ohanyan did their best to keep up with the Peruvian speedster and both landed on the podium, scoring $750 and $350 respectively for their efforts.
IM Karina Ambartsumova, who finished 35th was the top-scoring female player bagged $100 having edged out WCM Nhung Hong Nguyen in the final seconds of the event.The next Bullet Brawl event will take place on April 29, 2023, at 10.00 a.m. PT/20:00 CET.
How to review games?
The games from the second Bullet Brawl can be found here.
Congratulations to Jose Martinez for winning the third Bullet Brawl with an impressive 59 wins 💪 🇵🇪 pic.twitter.com/7VwelbvHhM
— Chess.com (@chesscom) March 25, 2023
A star-studded field spearheaded by the likes of GMs Alexander Grischuk, Arjun Erigaisi, Tuan Minh Le, and many others meant that topping March's Bullet Brawl would require an elite level of consistency and Martinez certainly stepped up to the task.
A 12-game unbeaten run to start the tournament set the tone for Martinez and throughout this time he knocked over several dangerous bullet players including GM Alan Pichot, IM Bobir Sattarov, and the eventual second-place getter Bortnyk.
Finishing 74 bullet chess games in two hours is an achievement in itself and Martinez made this possible off the back of some aggressive chess that resulted in multiple wins in less than 20 moves. His own countryman, IM Renato Terry, was one of the victims of one such defeat and the Peruvian international master was encouraged to resign after just 16 moves!
As the event is streamer-friendly, several content creators featured in the tournament while streaming live on Twitch and Youtube. IM Eric Rosen was up to his usual tricks and executed a classic stalemate with 0.3 seconds on the clock against GM Nikita Matinian, calmly stating, "I'll take it," after stealing the half point.
Fan-favorite Grischuk was unable to make in-roads in the March edition of Bullet Brawl but did play some bruising chess along the way, including a beautiful queenside assault against FM Edvin Trost that swiftly brought the game to a halt. See if you can find Grischuk's finishing blow below!
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Name | Username | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | Jose Martinez | Jospem | 3155 | 210 | |
| 2 | GM | Oleksandr Bortnyk | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | 3139 | 193 | |
| 3 | IM | Emin Ohanyan | OhanyanEminChess | 3047 | 180 | |
| 4 | GM | Tuan Minh Le | Wonderfultime | 3143 | 169 | |
| 5 | GM | Alan Pichot | Platy3 | 3050 | 160 | |
| 6 | GM | Arjun Erigaisi | NDEEVAM2003 | 3105 | 158 | |
| 7 | GM | Nihal Sarin | Nihalsarin | 3169 | 150 | |
| 8 | IM | Mykola Bortnyk | Mykola-Bortnyk | 3014 | 145 | |
| 9 | GM | Sergei Zhigalko | Zhigalko_Sergei | 3016 | 139 | |
| 10 | GM | Vugar Rasulov | vugarrasulov | 2902 | 130 | |
| 11 | GM | S.L Narayanan | Indianlad | 2956 | 129 | |
| 12 | GM | Yury Piskov | Real_OceanStorm | 2911 | 128 | |
| 13 | GM | Raunak Sadhwani | Champ2005 | 2982 | 120 | |
| 14 | NM | Janak Awatramani | 12teen | 2868 | 119 | |
| 15 | GM | Aman Hambleton | KNVB | 2844 | 104 | |
| 16 | IM | Renato Terry | MITerryble | 2921 | 103 | |
| 17 | IM | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | Ckgchess | 2955 | 103 | |
| 18 | CM | Egor Baskakov | Stollenmonster | 2774 | 89 | |
| 19 | IM | Mahdi Gholami Orimi | MetiForce | 2953 | 89 | |
| 20 | GM | Zbigniew Pakleza | Byniolus | 2825 | 87 |
Bullet Brawl is an exciting new titled arena that features Chess.com's top bullet specialists on the last Saturday of every month. The format is a two-hour arena with a 1+0 time control with a $2,500 prize fund.
Much like Titled Tuesday and Arena Kings, Bullet Brawl is expected to feature top GMs, including Hikaru Nakamura, Daniel Naroditsky, Andrew Tang, Tuan Minh Le, and many more!
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