24 hours after winning his fifth Freestyle Friday, GM Hikaru Nakamura returned to Chess.com’s servers to capture his 43rd Bullet Brawl title in a commanding fashion. Nakamura and GM Andrew Tang broke away from the 135-strong field on Saturday; however, Nakamura was able to finish on 183, besting Tang by 12 points.
Nakamura and Tang will receive $400 and $250 for first and second place, respectively, while GM Sina Movahed and IM Yoseph Taher will receive $150 and $100 for their podium finishes. The $100 best women’s prize was won by WFM Veronika Shubenkova, who scored 90 points.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, July 12, at noon ET/17:00 CEST.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3315 | 183 | |
| 2 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3192 | 171 | |
| 3 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3030 | 134 | |
| 4 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3081 | 131 | |
| 5 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3123 | 130 | |
| 6 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3119 | 128 | |
| 7 | GM | DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3074 | 125 | |
| 8 | GM | Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3094 | 124 | |
| 9 | GM | Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 3106 | 124 | |
| 10 | GM | Micki-taryan | Haik Martirosyan | 3018 | 122 | |
| 11 | GM | Sanan_Sjugirov | Sanan Sjugirov | 2994 | 120 | |
| 12 | GM | amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 3003 | 112 | |
| 13 | GM | ckgchess | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | 2963 | 111 | |
| 14 | GM | MetiForce | Mahdi Gholami Orimi | 2976 | 110 | |
| 15 | GM | KNVB | Aman Hambleton | 2876 | 109 | |
| 16 | IM | Boundless_Strike | Shamil Arslanov | 2893 | 108 | |
| 17 | IM | rezamahdavi2008 | Reza Mahdavi | 2999 | 107 | |
| 18 | IM | mbojan | Bojan Maksimovic | 2876 | 105 | |
| 19 | IM | blitzking1729 | Srihari L R | 2853 | 104 | |
| 20 | IM | ProfessorChess101 | Yichen Han | 2836 | 103 | |
(Full final standings here.)
During the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Tour, Nakamura candidly expressed that he wants to “go out on top” when he eventually calls time on his playing career. While this was clearly a reference to his over-the-board career, his recent form in online tournaments shows that he is still one of the best players in the world, with no signs of decline.
Saturday’s are for dominating at bullet 👌 @GMHikaru pic.twitter.com/APb7KbxGbI
— Chess.com (@chesscom) July 5, 2025
In Saturday’s brawl, a reduced field of 135 players meant that Nakamura played his most dangerous adversaries multiple times. Naturally, streaks were more difficult to build than in editions with more participants.
Early wins over GMs Amin Tabatabaei, Oleksandr Bortnyk, and Parham Maghsoodloo marked a strong start for Nakamura; however, he was unable to break away from the pack due to falling to GM Haik Martirosyan in a game where anarchy reigned supreme.
Soon after, Nakamura posted a 15-game streak, which ended with a trio of wins over 3000+ rated GMs Sanan Sjugirov, Haowen Xue, and Martirosyan. His conversion against Hungarian middlegame maestro Sjugirov was particularly clinical.
In the very next game, Nakamura capitalized on Xue’s erroneous 43…Re8?? with a puzzleworthy one-mover. See if you can spot the winning move below.
Following the streak, Nakamura continued to spot crafty ways to win games, including in a clash with Indian GM Narayanan S.L. where he left his queen en prise and prompted his opponent’s resignation due to the threat of checkmate.
Although Nakamura’s tactical awareness helped him keep his nose in front, Tang stayed within touch of the lead throughout. The crux of Nakamura’s performance was his 6/9 score against Tang, which prevented his rival from mounting a last-ditch comeback.
The fifth game between the pair was arguably the most important—Nakamura held his nerve and duly converted after both kings became exposed in the late middlegame.
With this being his ninth win of 2025, Nakamura’s victories in this calendar year would place him fifth on the all-time leaderboard, with more than double the wins of the sixth-placed GM Jose Martinez.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 43 | 9 | 19 | 15 |
| Daniel Naroditsky | 28 | 4 | 14 | 10 |
| Oleksandr Bortnyk | 12 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| Andrew Tang | 11 | 7 | 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 |
| Alireza Firouzja | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Nihal Sarin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Reza Mahdavi | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Tuan Minh Le | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Yoseph Taher | 1 | 0 | 1 | 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, Daniel Naroditsky, Andrew Tang, Tuan Minh Le, and many more!
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