GM Hikaru Nakamura added to his Bullet Brawl dominance on September 19, winning the tournament once again. It was Nakamura’s second straight week in first place, his 18th win of the year, and his 67th total to date. To put that in perspective, no other players have won more than 32 Bullet Brawls or more than four events this year.
Bullet Brawl will return on Saturday, September 26, at 12 p.m. ET / 18:00 CEST / 9:30 p.m. IST.
Standings
(Full final standings here.)
Nakamura led the event from start-to-finish. He began with a 13-game winning streak, tied for the longest streak of any player throughout the entire tournament. In his 10th game, he took down the eventual third-place finisher, GM Tuan Minh Le. It only took one tactical mistake and Black’s position crumbled.
GM Salem Saleh finally stopped Nakamura, checkmating him in an endgame. However, Nakamura immediately started another streak, winning his next nine games, including this sharp battle against IM Renato Terry.
Nakamura finished strong, ending with nine consecutive wins before a final draw against Minh Le. This brought him to 56.5/66 on the day and 188 points. That final winning streak included a nice attacking game against Saleh.
Behind Nakamura’s clear first was a tough battle for second place. In the end, GM Emin Ohanyan scored 45.5/60 to surpass Minh Le by just a point, 150-149. Ohanyan’s strong result included a win over GM Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen played only part of the event, scoring a strong 17/21, but not partaking in the fight for the top spots.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2026 Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | 67 | 18 | 15 | 19 | 15 |
| GM Daniel Naroditsky | 32 | N/A | 8 | 14 | 10 |
| GM Oleksandr Bortnyk | 17 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 3 |
| GM Andrew Tang | 15 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| GM Ediz Gurel | 10 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 0 |
| GM Jeffery Xiong | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Arjun Erigaisi | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| IM Renato Terry | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Yagiz Erdogmus | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Nihal Sarin | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| GM Tuan Minh Le | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Sam Sevian | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Alireza Firouzja | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Andy Woodward | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Matthias Bluebaum | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| IM Yoseph Taher | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| IM Reza Mahdavi | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Javokhir Sindarov | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
How to review games?
The games from this week’s Bullet Brawl can be found here.
Bullet Brawl is an exciting arena featuring Chess.com’s top bullet specialists. It takes place weekly on Saturdays. The format is a two-hour arena with a 1+0 time control; the prize fund is $1,000. Like Titled Tuesday and Arena Kings, Bullet Brawl often features top GMs, including Hikaru Nakamura, Magnus Carlsen, Tuan Minh Le, and many more!
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