Child Prodigy Vs. $1,000 Prize Pool Arena!?

Technically this tournament couldn’t get any closer.

Tying at 167 points, Ediz Gürel @Ediz_Gurel edged out Andrew Tang (playing on an old alt account @CleverTacticButFail) on performance rating.

Tie goes to the... performance rating? Yes!

Catch the exciting finale here, or keep reading for the written recap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTXJq5itcnI

Young talents and fan favorites certainly came out big time this past weekend to play in this month's Titled Bullet Arena.

In the final half of this two hour event Gürel led 2nd place Tang by around 20 points, and then 3rd place Daniel Naroditsky @rebeccaharris by more than 30!

However a strong top 10 littered by Sergei Zhilgalko @Zhigalko_Sergei, IM Mykola Bortknyk @Mlchael, etc. ensured a runaway couldn’t be achieved by the young prodigy... or anyone else for that matter!

The ever slippery Penguin stormed back with a late run to even the gap, winning 12 out of his last 20 games (with 1 draw).

Tournament strategy did not quite pay off for grandmaster Tang this time however.

A whopping 77% berserk rate came back to haunt him in the final moments: dropping a critical time-odds game to 15 year old FM Gleb Shcheglov @ShcheglovGleb10

Nonetheless Ediz dazzled fans across lichess (the Turkish lichess mods were certainly busy) at one juncture capturing 27 points with an impressive 7 game win streak.

He held strong at the end despite difficult pairings in essentially every matchup (and an internet issue that cost him a game vs the Penguin).

Gürel scored 4 wins, 4 losses, and 2 draws in his last 10 games.

It's worth noting that in the Lichess arena format a draw counts for 1 arena point. A fire streak ends with a draw... but it counts for 2 points! Just as much as a win.

Remember the titans, people! I mean, the score.

Fun fact: fellow child prodigy 11 year old Faustino Oro @FaustiOro finished 27th in this event, at one point reaching the top 20 in the live standing!

The future is bright, friends.
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Thanks for reading ツ

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