Performances like these make us wonder if we should just send money to Alireza every month and not waste time holding a tournament.

GM Alireza Firouzja won the August Lichess Bullet Arena by a big margin yesterday, 29 points. He took the lead after about 25 minutes of play, 10 minutes later he was up 15 pts, and by the halfway point of the tournament he was up 40. The standard video info-graphic we release tells the tale of his incredible surge to blow right past his competitors

https://youtu.be/IWLC-nmjKkA

Finishing in second was GM Daniel Naroditsky, who dominated second place as much as Alireza dominated first. He finished 33 points ahead of GM Andrew Tang in Third. He was also the only player that seemed able to slow down Firouzja at all, winning 3 of their 5 games in this event. Zaven Andriasian and Sergei Zhigalko filled the rest of the prize spots in 4th and 5th respectively.

The 6th place finisher probably deserves to be mentioned as he has something of a following on Lichess. GM Magnus Øen Carlsen from Norway, a previous Titled Arena winner had, by his own sky-high standards, a rough day. Nevertheless, he still found a few bright moments. He live-streamed the event from the Offerspil studio to a large audience. Magnus will quickly get a chance for redemption on Wednesday when he’s seeded directly into the knockout portion of the Katara International Bullet Tournament. It’s unconfirmed that Alireza will play but he has already registered his account to the qualifiers on Monday.

As always, numerous streamers took part in the event, giving commentary or playing themselves. ChessNetwork, Eric Rosen, Penguin, and many others. The number of streamers linked on the front page of Lichess is temporarily raised for Titled Arenas and we never have any trouble filling the spots.

This is the last of the currently scheduled Titled Arenas, but they are certainly not going away. Look for our announcement of the dates for future events soon.