Martinez struck back, but Tang maintained his two-point edge as the minutes evaporated. Tang began to pull ahead with a three-game winning streak. As the match reached the halfway point, he tied up the score by venturing through dynamic chaos with his eyes on his slight yet decisive time edge. In a game where Martinez had three passed pawns marching down the board, the ultrabullet maestro turned the tables. Tang was also capable of pulling off astounding comebacks. Martinez on time! #BulletChess /T1bcopur05 In the final seconds, he moved his rook en prise intentionally to prevent any checkmate possibilities―a blunder in different circumstances, startling his opponent long enough to run out of time. In the very first game, Tang exhibited his standout ability to flag opponents. Hess summed it up: “Bortnyk, he does it so often: he stares defeat in the face, and he comes back.” Tang vs.

In the final game, down a bishop and 15 seconds, Bortnyk snuck out of certain disaster in the time scramble to reach a two-point lead in the nick of time, eliminating Paravyan’s hope of overtime. Paravyan fought back, equalizing the score with six minutes left on the match clock―showing how closely matched these competitors are. In game 15, Bortnyk converted the endgame and checkmated Paravyan with just 0.3 left on his clock. Hess observed: “When both players get around 15 seconds, he gets into that next gear.” Yet, Bortnyk had a way of sneaking out of many time scrambles, no matter how much time he entered them with, especially excelling when the clock went under 15 seconds―ultrabullet speeds.

Paravyan often gained a time advantage in the opening, due to his excellent preparation and understanding. Bortnyk himself noticed this trend: “He was extremely fast… I watched my clock, and I was down like 15 seconds every game.” After winning a third game with Black, he utilized his endgame technique to score the first victory with White, giving him an early two-point lead.īortnyk immediately retaliated with a four-game winning streak. Oddly, the match started out with five wins in a row for the black pieces. These intense competitors exchanged winning streaks, keeping the score very close throughout the entire match. I sorta figured out by the end of the match what I should do.” During the match, I was tinkering a little bit. I started getting certain positions that were easier to play. I started changing my openings a little bit. “I do remember even from the last match that Alireza has that ability where he can get really low and you think you’re going to win, but he’s able to show just amazing technique… In his interview, Nakamura shared some of his match strategy: Nakamura has secured his seat in the Grand Final with two lives against whomever he faces, while Firouzja will get a second chance in the Losers Final to rise and challenge Nakamura once more. In the penultimate game, as both players attacked the enemy kings castled to opposite sides, Nakamura found an unstoppable checkmate, growing his lead to three points with too little time left for Firouzja to come back. With five minutes left on the match timer, the two most recent bullet champions remained in a dead even match, fighting to tip the scales in their favor. In their fascinating game 23, it’s hard to tell who was playing for the win as both players hunted each other’s kings. Have you seen a more disgusting queen trap than this 😳? #BulletChess /PFEwPq1eESįirouzja struck back, winning two in a row. Nakamura increased it with a ruthless queen trap the next game. This gave Nakamura his first lead of the match with 14 minutes left. With great effort, Nakamura tied up the match twice, but Firouzja won the very next game each time.Īll tied up a third time, Firouzja mouse slipped his king to d2, giving up his right to castle and a couple of tempi to bring his king back to safer waters. In the first half of the match, Nakamura seemed to be having trouble in the opening, and Firouzja carried a four-point lead.

Jeopardy 30 second timer