GM Nihal Sarin secured his third Bullet Brawl title and the $400 first prize on Saturday after going unbeaten in his last seven games. Nihal scored two wins over GM Hikaru Nakamura, and defeated GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and IM Reza Mahdavi before drawing with GM Ediz Gurel in his final game.
Nihal scored 151 points and was followed by Nakamura and GM Andrew Tang, who tied on 145 points and will receive $250 and $150 respectively, due to tiebreaks. Indonesian IM Yoseph Taher snuck into third position and will receive $100, while WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya acquired the $100 best women’s prize.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, Nov. 22, at 1 p.m. ET/19:00 CEST.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3270 | 151 | |
| 2 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3258 | 145 | |
| 3 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3223 | 145 | |
| 4 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3143 | 133 | |
| 5 | GM | gurelediz | Ediz Gürel | 3208 | 127 | |
| 6 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3182 | 127 | |
| 7 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3085 | 124 | |
| 8 | IM | rezamahdavi2008 | Reza Mahdavi | 3161 | 124 | |
| 9 | GM | NikoTheodorou | Nikolas Theodorou | 3120 | 124 | |
| 10 | GM | Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3121 | 120 | |
| 11 | GM | Micki-taryan | Haik Martirosyan | 3057 | 119 | |
| 12 | GM | Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 3084 | 118 | |
| 13 | GM | rpragchess | Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | 3128 | 116 | |
| 14 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3094 | 115 | |
| 15 | IM | carokannlover213 | Patryk Cieslak | 3049 | 114 | |
| 16 | GM | vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3070 | 111 | |
| 17 | GM | ChessSharkz | Kayden Troff | 3062 | 110 | |
| 18 | IM | Kacparov | Kacper Drozdowski | 3067 | 106 | |
| 19 | GM | Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3097 | 102 | |
| 20 | CM | NikaVolkov | Nika Volkov | 2984 | 101 |
(Full final standings here.)
Saturday’s 162-player strong field was spearheaded by three of the world’s top 10: GMs Magnus Carlsen, Nakamura, and Praggnanandhaa. However, the participation of a brood of 2600+ players, including eliminated 2025 FIDE World Cup contenders such as GMs Matthias Bluebaum, Gurel, and Haik Martirosyan, meant that no placements were guaranteed. The scene was set for a high-octane battle royale.Â
Nihal’s start to the arena was unusually lackluster for an eventual winner, and after early defeats to GMs Haowen Xue, Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen, and the much lower-rated Dutch FM Gachatur Kazarjan, Nihal’s winning prospects were called into question.Â
He soon soon made up for this by posting a 21-game unbeaten streak, featuring wins over Carlsen, Gurel, GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, and Nakamura.
In response to a clever intermezzo by Carlsen, Nihal defended like a lion until the five-time world champion fumbled his advantage. The ensuing knight vs. bishop ending was always better for the Indian star, but a clean conversion was still necessary, considering his opponent.
Against Nakamura, Nihal put the 48-time winner in zugzwang in a king and pawn endgame. The result added woe to an already tough patch of play for Nakamura. Off the back of this period, Nihal assumed the lead.
The highlight of Nihal’s winning performance came in his last 12 games, where all of his opponent’s were rated over 3000 and he only lost a single game. Back-to-back 19 and 29-move wins over Praggnanandhaa and Nakamura cemented place at the top and confirmed his third Bullet Brawl title. The win over his compatriot was a dominant display of attacking chess without queens on the board.
With this victory, Nihal moves to seventh on the all-time leaderboard and is one of only three players to win an edition of Bullet Brawl when both Nakamura and Carlsen have participated.
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 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| GM Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| GM Nihal Sarin | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| GM Sam Sevian | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Yagiz Erdogmus | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Alireza Firouzja | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Tuan Minh Le | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| IM Yoseph Taher | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| IM Reza Mahdavi | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Jeffery Xiong | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Javokhir Sindarov | 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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