In a month stuffed with surprises and controversy on this planet of chess, one more bombshell didn’t happen when National Master John Chernoff (ZugAddict on lichess.org) was at no level a major consider yesterday’s Titled Arena, ending 141st out of 366 members. When requested by completely nobody to elucidate his unremarkable efficiency, Mr. Chernoff mumbled one thing about his mouse and bullet chess being an undignified exercise to base a critical chess match on and left to activate the tub faucet for his cat, “Bear“.

With the sector left extensive open by the utterly anticipated sequence of losses by NM Chernoff, two precise Grandmasters vied for first – Oleksandr Bortnyk (“Night-King96“) and Daniel Naroditsky (“RebeccaHarris“), each managing to outpace their most well-known rival, World #4 Alireza Firouzja (“alireza2003“) after Firouzja stumbled close to the top of the match with 4 successive losses. Narodisky’s efficiency was arguably essentially the most spectacular of all, as he performed solely about an hour of the 2 hour lengthy occasion and beserked an astonishing 56% of his video games. Here in puzzle type is one in every of Naroditsky’s wins towards the match winner:

https://lichess.org/research/qgfmWWPm/HjdD8Ol1#48

In all equity to the obviousness of that final “puzzle”, it needs to be famous that profound combos aren’t the most typical function of bullet video games. The commonest function of bullet video games are issues like this:

https://lichess.org/research/qgfmWWPm/dhoLndxU#110

Finally, lest we take into account GM Bortnyk solely a strategic bullet genius, here is a horny end to one in every of his different video games:

https://lichess.org/research/qgfmWWPm/JIgYjJEJ#40

After this victory, Night-King96 rattled off seven extra to lastly surge forward of the competitors and win the occasion. When pressed for feedback afterwards, GM Bortnyk stated nothing as a result of I simply messaged him a second in the past and he is most likely sleeping or one thing.

The subsequent Titled Arena can be on November fifth.

– Zug

EDIT: Oleksandr Bortnyk writes again! His succinct abstract: “at all times onerous to play , too many good gamers , final quarter-hour have been annoying”. Oleksandr additionally has simply offered an unique perception into his favourite music to take heed to whereas taking part in in these tournaments: “disco music , or deephouse , however when I’m dropping to many video games or cannot win 2-3 video games in a row , then Show Must Go On“. Many thanks and congratulations as soon as extra to the October lichess.org Titled Arena Champion, Grandmaster Bortnyk!