Bullet Grandpa Wins Game 28 and Spoils Dubov's 100-0 Sweep

In the final match of the 100-0 Project Season 1, held on November 7 on Chess.com, Arizona amateur Josh Smith, known as @BulletGrandpa, won game 28 against GM Daniil Dubov. That single point denied Dubov a perfect sweep. He finished 99-1.

The match was 100 games at 1+0, the standard “pure” bullet control. Winning every game would have earned Dubov $20,000, while a single draw or win for Smith meant $10,000. Dubov collected the lower sum.

An 800-point mismatch on paper

Smith, who is 49 and estimates he has played over 250,000 bullet games, set a personal best of 2579 on October 6. He began the match at 2424.

Dubov’s bullet rating was 3225, a gap of about 800 points. For a sense of what such a gap means, see our explainer on what a rating actually measures.

Dubov won the first 27 games. Game three ended in the opening, a Czech Benoni where 9.Bb5+ left Black with no good reply. In game six he won in 16 moves as Black, opening the white king with 7…e3!

The sacrifices

In game seven, 40.f3 was a clean conversion, and mate came one move later. Game 10 was Smith’s closest early brush with a draw, but Dubov took over a knight endgame with the more active king.

Game 15 produced one of the day’s best moves, the queen sacrifice 27.Qc6!!, since 28.Rb8 would be mate if the queen were taken. In game 24 Smith briefly outplayed Dubov before losing control in a rook and opposite-color bishop ending. Dubov finished it with a rare mate delivered by a king move.

Game 28

After the first 25-game break, the end of the sweep came quickly. Smith hung his queen, Dubov missed it and hung a bishop in return, and the amateur won the time scramble. Smith shouted, “He’s human!”

The experiment was effectively over, but they played on. Dubov, perhaps freed by the lower stakes, finished at 99-1, better than he had expected. He had predicted 97-3 or even 95-5, and said two or three games were saved on time rather than by the quality of his moves.

What each said

Smith said he was “blown away” and had never faced a player of Dubov’s caliber. He admitted it was harder than he expected: “I run out of ideas.”

Dubov rejected the pedestal idea. “You’ve gotta wait for this blunder, and this blunder will come for sure,” he said, adding that Smith would get a chance in perhaps five games or more.

Season 2 and a tip

Dubov had watched some of Smith’s training matches, in which Smith was never swept over 50-game sets against content creators and personalities, including GMs Arturs Neiksans and Vasif Durarbayli.

He spotted a pattern: with White, Smith tends toward d4, Nf3, b3, Bb2, g3, Bg2, a setup that is easy to premove. Dubov expected better positions every game against it, and suggested Smith keep such lines secret next time.

Season 2 runs from December 2026 to March 2027, per IM Danny Rensch, and ends with a match against final boss GM Levon Aronian. The broadcast was hosted by GM Kayden Troff, who is also Smith’s coach, and Greg Mustreader, who co-created the project with Smith.