An inspired GM Andrew Tang posted a 27-game unbeaten streak during Saturday’s Bullet Brawl and surged to a 14th career victory ahead of the 48-time winner, GM Hikaru Nakamura.
Tang chalked up 51 wins, four draws, and 11 losses in the two-hour arena for a total score of 178 points, meaning that the $400 first prize was won comfortably.
For his second placed finish, Nakamura will receive $250, while GMs Oleksandr Bortnyk and Sina Movahed will receive $150 and $100 respectively, for finishing third and fourth. Meanwhile, Iranian WFM Melika Mohammadi took out the $100 best women’s prize by a four point margin.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, Nov. 8, at 1:00 p.m. ET/18:00 CEST.
Standings
| Number | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3290 | 178 | |
| 2 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3288 | 165 | |
| 3 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3206 | 141 | |
| 4 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3178 | 137 | |
| 5 | GM | Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3171 | 131 | |
| 6 | GM | Njal28 | Aram Hakobyan | 3094 | 126 | |
| 7 | IM | Kacparov | Kacper Drozdowski | 3111 | 122 | |
| 8 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3139 | 121 | |
| 9 | FM | yavrukurt40 | Dincer Tasdogen | 3101 | 121 | |
| 10 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3119 | 118 | |
| 11 | GM | Sanan_Sjugirov | Sanan Sjugirov | 3074 | 117 | |
| 12 | GM | Nitzan_Steinberg | Nitzan Steinberg | 3027 | 117 | |
| 13 | NM | GensUnaSumus | Will Moorhouse | 2886 | 112 | |
| 14 | FM | Bryanl106 | Bryan Enming Lin | 2976 | 110 | |
| 15 | FM | Gangster-accountant01 | Barad Yeganegi | 2928 | 108 | |
| 16 | FM | Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 3012 | 106 | |
| 17 | FM | EddieMarsalla | Ivan Vihor Krsnik Cohar | 2894 | 106 | |
| 18 | CM | Germanovs_Georgijs | Georgijs Germanovs | 2983 | 103 | |
| 19 | WFM | crazy_m_attack | Melika Mohammadi | 2849 | 101 | |
| 20 | IM | Aswathchess | Aswath S | 2825 | 98 |
(Full final standings here.)
Saturday’s Bullet Brawl was one of the strongest by rating in recent memory, with the top 12 spots being filled by players with bullet ratings over 3000. Among them were clear favorites in Nakamura, Tang, and Bortnyk, however, regular such as GMs Haowen Xue, Movahed, and IM Renato Terry also posed serious threats.
Multiple players got off to strong starts in the arena and the lead changed hands between Turkish FM Dincer Tasdogen, Xue, Tang, and Bortnyk. Nakamura also loomed, but was slowed by an unfortunate stalemate against IM Reza Mahdavi.
Despite recording a 0.5/2 start, Tang soon rose above the rest of the field off the back of a sizzling, 27-game streak, featuring six wins and two draws with GMs.
Against non-GM opponents, Tang often employed his trademark Gibbins-Weidenhagen Gambit and embraced the subsequent chaos. Irish CM Anuar Tureshbayev was one opponent whose king was hunted relentlessly by Tang.
The leader’s streak was eventually snapped by Nakamura after the erroneous 24.Qg2??, and from this moment onwards, it was clear that one of these two players would win the event.
Tang and Nakamura dueled on 10 occasions and split the points on offer evenly, although a hat trick of wins in the middle of the arena for Tang meant that Nakamura’s chances of surpassing Tang were dashed.
The last of these games, which was also the shortest game between the pair, came to an abrupt end when Nakamura missed a discovered attack on move 17.
With an unassailable lead in tow, Tang relaxed during the back-end of the event, but could still be counted on for the occasional onslaught. Playing against Xue, Tang locked his opponent’s pieces out of the game by controlling the light squares, paving the way for a game-winning knight check on the 36th move.
With another Bullet Brawl victory under his belt, Tang moves into third on the all-time leaderboard and cements his status as the second most prolific winner in 2025.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | 48 | 14 | 19 | 15 |
| GM Daniel Naroditsky | 32 | 8 | 14 | 10 |
| GM Andrew Tang | 14 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| GM Oleksandr Bortnyk | 13 | 3 | 7 | 3 |
| GM Ediz Gurel | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| GM Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| GM Sam Sevian | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Nihal Sarin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| GM Yagiz Erdogmus | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Alireza Firouzja | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Javokhir Sindarov | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Jeffery Xiong | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Tuan Minh Le | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| IM Yoseph Taher | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| IM Reza Mahdavi | 1 | 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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