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After progressing to the ChessKid Youth Championships Knockout earlier in the day, 13-year-old GM-elect Yagiz Erdogmus has commanded another headline with a historic Bullet Brawl victory on Saturday. Scoring 220 points, he finished well ahead of second-place GM Oleksandr Bortnyk (190) and Canada's GM Eric Hansen (184) as well as 107 other titled players.

With this result, Erdogmus became the first IM and junior to win the event and has joined an exclusive list that features eight unique winners. IM Meri Arabidze won the $100 best women's prize while Cesar Frank Talledo Lagos took out the community event.

The next Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, July 6, 2024, at noon ET/18:00 CEST.

Standings

While most 13-year-olds were enjoying their weekend off from school, Erdogmus kept busy beating many of the world's best chess players in the latest edition of Bullet Brawl. In a field stacked with the likes of GMs Tuan Minh Le, Matthias Bluebaum, Sam Sevian, and Jose Martinez, Erdogmus' performance serves as a reminder that age plays second-fiddle to talent when it comes to chess ability.

A win over Le marked the perfect start for Erdogmus who backed this up by scoring 4/6 against GMs in his first 10 games of the arena. The Turkish sensation became a true contender when he dispatched both IM Renato Terry and Martinez in 25 and 22 moves, respectively.

To cement his position at the top, Erdogmus strung together two 21-game unbeaten streaks, the first of which featured no fewer than six miniatures. Notably, one was an 18-move victory over the former world junior champion GM Pablo Zarnicki.

Bortnyk, who was a top contender for first place, kept in touch with the lead while streaming on Twitch but could only manage 1/4 against Erdogmus, with most of their games descending into chaos and ending with time scrambles.

Erdogmus' super Saturday even seemed to catch the attention of the longtime world number-one GM Magnus Carlsen who challenged him to a blitz match at the conclusion of the event. Though the score heavily favored Carlsen (12.5-3.5), Erdogmus did manage to pick up a few wins.

Boasting a FIDE rating of 2569, Erdogmus is the 12th-highest-rated U18 player in the world and is the fifth-highest-rated player from Turkiye. Although GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Daniel Naroditsky did not participate in this week's brawl, they will no doubt take notice of Turkiye's emerging prodigy.

How to review games? The games from this week's Bullet Brawl can be found here.

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!

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Bullet Brawl June 29, 2024: 13-Year-Old Erdogmus Becomes First Junior To Win Bullet Brawl - Chess.com