GM Hikaru Nakamura has reached an unprecedented 40 Bullet Brawl titles after claiming first place in Saturday’s two-hour area with a commanding rating of 288. He notched 76/80 video games to win the $400 first prize forward of the second-place finisher, GM Nihal Sarin.
GMs Andrew Tang and Oleksandr Bortnyk completed in third and fourth place, respectively, and can obtain $150 and $100 for his or her efforts, whereas FM Anastasia Avramidou received the $100 greatest girls’s prize.
The subsequent version of Bullet Brawl will begin on Saturday, Might 24, at midday ET/17:00 CEST.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Username | Title | Ranking | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3313 | 288 | |
| 2 | GM | nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3194 | 229 | |
| 3 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3174 | 223 | |
| 4 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3160 | 204 | |
| 5 | GM | gurelediz | Ediz Gurel | 3094 | 183 | |
| 6 | GM | Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3096 | 174 | |
| 7 | GM | TheSilmarils | Giorgi Margvelashvili | 2981 | 158 | |
| 8 | GM | vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3037 | 142 | |
| 9 | GM | Nitzan_Steinberg | Nitzan Steinberg | 2941 | 133 | |
| 10 | FM | KogotBobra17 | Egor Koshulyan | 2882 | 124 | |
| 11 | IM | hakanazeri2 | Khagan Ahmad | 2907 | 121 | |
| 12 | FM | Silent_killer63 | Elisei Bespalov | 2894 | 119 | |
| 13 | FM | NovozhilovSemen | Semen Novozhilov | 2810 | 117 | |
| 14 | IM | lamomiajunior | Joaquin Fiorito | 2876 | 116 | |
| 15 | FM | derekcclasby | Derek Clasby | 2819 | 114 | |
| 16 | IM | JustinWang1234 | Justin Wang | 2984 | 112 | |
| 17 | GM | FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3000 | 111 | |
| 18 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3056 | 110 | |
| 19 | FM | Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 2869 | 107 | |
| 20 | FM | TheRabbit19 | Andrei Negrean | 2801 | 105 | |
(Full closing standings here.)
75 wins, 2 attracts, 3 losses.
Full dominance as we speak from @GMHikaru to win his fortieth Bullet Brawl 🔥 pic.twitter.com/KJAAQ5NU6n
— Chess.com (@chesscom) May 17, 2025
No fewer than 13 bullet brawlers rated 3000+ joined Saturday’s occasion, and amongst them have been six former winners: Nakamura, Nihal, Tang, Bortnyk, GM Ediz Gurel, and GM Tuan Minh Le. Former tremendous GM Dmitry Andreikin and Chessbrah member GM Eric Hansen additionally joined the fracas, together with Chess.com’s newly minted King of the Hill champion, GM Guha Mitrabha.
Nakamura dealt with Saturday’s tough subject with aplomb and rode a wave of confidence off the again of breaking the positioning’s blitz ranking document earlier within the week. Nakamura launched into motion within the first half-hour and posted a 20-game successful streak, stamping his authority on the occasion.
Bortnyk got here near snapping Nakamura’s streak when he compelled him right into a worse bishop vs. knight ending; nonetheless, the eventual winner discovered all the proper strikes to flip the script.
Lastly, India’s GM Pranav Venkatesh took a degree off Nakamura, however this is able to be the one level the world number-two would drop within the first hour of the world—a ruthless 33-game streak infused with tactical brilliancies ensued.
Towards FM Arnav Maheshwari, Nakamura executed a Greek present sacrifice to show Black’s king and delivered checkmate quickly after.
Nakamura continued to dominate within the second half of the occasion and by the point the world clock expired, his successful margin was 59 factors. His closing consequence comprised 75 wins, two attracts, and simply three losses.
Nihal chased Nakamura valiantly, even managing to defeat him in 29 strikes on the white aspect of the Caro-Kann Protection: Gurgenidze Variation, however in the long run, the occasion was a walkover for the 40-time champion.
One other standout performer was the winner of one of the best girls’s prize, Avramidou, who managed to attain 103 factors and end in twenty first place. On the way in which to successful her prize, Avramidou stunned a 3044-rated Pranav after overwhelming him with handed pawns.
With this being his fortieth victory, Nakamura has now received roughly 38% of each Bullet Brawl held since its inception in early 2023, and he’s displaying no indicators of slowing down.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Participant | All-Time Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 40 | 6 | 19 | 15 |
| Daniel Naroditsky | 27 | 3 | 14 | 10 |
| Oleksandr Bortnyk | 12 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| Andrew Tang | 10 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
| Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Ediz Gurel | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Sam Sevian | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Yagiz Erdogmus | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Nihal Sarin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Alireza Firouzja | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Tuan Minh Le | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Yoseph Taher | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
The way to overview video games?
The video games from this week’s Bullet Brawl could be discovered here.
Bullet Brawl is an thrilling area that includes Chess.com’s prime bullet specialists. It takes place weekly on Saturdays. The format is a two-hour area with a 1+0 time management; the prize fund is $1,000. Like Titled Tuesday and Area Kings, Bullet Brawl usually options prime GMs, together with Hikaru Nakamura, Daniel Naroditsky, Andrew Tang, Tuan Minh Le, and plenty of extra!
Earlier protection:
