Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Pre-Moves
The Scholar’s mate is certainly the first trap every beginner learn during the first days of their training. You will never see that setup in GMs games. But it doesn’t mean they will not fall victims of it. What I mean is that never a GM will try that trap in classical games but it’s an option faster time controls. Especially in bullet games.
That is exactly what happened in the online competition “Bullet Brawl” that ches.com regularly organizes for title masters.
The Bullet Brawl is a two-hour bullet arena with a 1+0 time control for titled players. It’s an arena event where players get paired according to their scores. The winner is the player with most points by the end of those two hours.
The event features a weekly $1,000 prize fund ($400 for the first place)
The 88th edition of Bullet Brawl (2025 Jan, 18th) was the strongest in the event’s history. 239 titled masters took part. Among them, three of the world’s top-10 players: Carlsen, Firouzja, and Nakamura. GM Volodar Murzin, FIDE World Rapid Chess 2025 crowned champion, also played.
Daniel Naroditsky was the winner with a score of 221, one point ahead of Carlsen and Firouzja.
Certainly his task was not easy and he enjoyed some luck. Halfway through the event, two loses against Carlsen and Firouzja was a heavy burden on his aspirations. But then followed a favorable streak of 25 wins. Several minutes before the time limit, Carlsen and Firouzja were neck and neck on 220 points and Naroditsky trailed behind. Here is where Daniel tried a risky strategy that nevertheless proved to be successful. Out of pure desperation, he attempted a four-move checkmate against his opponent in the penultimate game. And it worked! And then he tried it again in the last game against Firouzja and it worked again!! Both times Naroditsky checkmated his opponents on the fifth move, thanks to crafty pre-moves that would only work in bullet games.
Below is the last game agaisnt Firouzja.
Because this game was at the verge of the time limit, Firouzja was playing as quickly as possible, needing a result in mere seconds in order to overtake Carlsen. Naroditsky took advantage of it wisely assuming his opponent’s urgency and his most likely pre-moves. The strategy worked perfectly.
Maybe you play chess but are unable to attend a local club. If that is your case, then join our virtual Chess.com club. On our site, we regularly play online tournaments and team matches. More than 1230 members enjoy that chance and new players join every week. We have new tournaments scheduled for the coming months waiting for players! Join now! Additionally, we have a puzzle section and we have recently started to practice the variant of ‘Vote Chess’. Although not very popular, ‘Vote Chess’ is an effective educational tool for learning together.
