Bullet chess is a very fast game of chess where each side only has less than 3 minutes to complete all of their moves. The Internet Chess Club (ICC) definition [1] of bullet chess is any game where

Time + (2/3)Increment < 3.

• Time is the initial time setting for each clock (in minutes).
• Increment is the time regained on the clock per move (in seconds).

Bullet chess is even faster and more hectic than blitz chess. The bullet in bullet chess refers to the fast speed of a bullet. Often bullet chess is so fast that tactics and skill are secondary to quick moves. Under USCF rules bullet games are considered blitz.

On ICC, the four time reigning bullet chess champion and bullet rating record holder is Hawkeye (German GM Roland Schmaltz ), but he is often overshadowed by the emerging superstar Hikaru Nakamura (AKA Smallville on ICC), who holds the "1-minute" (a special category on ICC where opponents are randomly paired, thus improving rating accuracy) and blitz rating records. Nakamura is also the best player in these categories on the Playchess.com server, in which he is known as Star Wars. Hawkeye recommends using an optical mouse and taking breaks to avoid hand injury.

Every year, a over the board lightning chess tournament is held in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. The time control is 2 minutes per player per game. It is the only official championship in bullet chess. The winner can claim the title Open Dutch Champion in Lightning Chess. Karel van der Weide won the tournament in 2002. In 2003 and 2004 Hawkeye aka Roland Schmaltz won the tournament. Manuel Bosboom is the current champion.