GM Hikaru Nakamura emerged as the winner of Bullet Brawl for a record 66th time on Saturday, September 12. It was a dominant performance, with Nakamura’s 184 points leaving him 42 points clear of IM Yoseph Theolifus Taher in second place. With Nakamura’s impressive score, the fight for second was more exciting than the race for first. Behind Taher, five players—GM Sina Movahed, GM Andrew Tang, GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, GM Maarten Solleveld, and IM Reza Mahdavi—all finished within 10 points of second place. WIM Melika Mohammadi took the top women’s prize with 91 points.
Bullet Brawl will return on Saturday, September 19, at 12 p.m. ET / 18:00 CEST / 9:30 p.m. IST.
Standings
(Full final standings here.)
Nakamura had a strong start to the tournament, winning 14 out of his first 15 games. He nearly did even better. His only loss in that span was his fifth game against GM Maarten Solleveld, when he blundered mate in one in an otherwise winning position.
Nakamura responded by winning his next 10 games, including a rematch with Solleveld.
Bortnyk finally ended Nakamura’s winning streak with a draw, but Nakamura picked up again with an impressive tactical win against IM Renato Terry in the next game.
Nakamura is a universal player, just as capable of winning a long endgame as a tactical fight. He demonstrated that skill against last week’s Bullet Brawl winner, GM Jeffery Xiong.
While Nakamura won the tournament, Taher’s 41/54 score was enough to beat the rest of the field. He began the tournament by winning his first 11 games and later won 14 in a row, the longest streak of any player in the event.
Movahed took third place with a score of 48/68. He finished just a point behind Taher, ending with 141 points total. The following game, a crushing win against Terry, demonstrates Movahed’s strong play.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2026 Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | 66 | 17 | 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 | 2 | 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, Andrew Tang, Tuan Minh Le, and many more!
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