Chess’ answer to DC Comics’ “The Flash,” GM Andrew Tang, has joined GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Daniel Naroditsky as a top-three all-time Bullet Brawl titlist after winning Saturday’s event ahead of 118 titled players.
Tang’s fast start gave him an edge over the field, and when the arena clock expired, the American had earned 162 points, eight more than the second-place GM Ediz Gurel, and nine more than GM Oleksandr Bortnyk.
The players will receive $400, $250, and $150, respectively, for their efforts, while FM Anastasia Avramidou will take home $100 for the best women’s prize.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, Aug 9, at noon ET/17:00 CEST.
Standings
| Number | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3244 | 162 | |
| 2 | GM | gurelediz | Ediz Gurel | 3245 | 154 | |
| 3 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3248 | 153 | |
| 4 | GM | Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3126 | 133 | |
| 5 | GM | Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3146 | 132 | |
| 6 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3061 | 128 | |
| 7 | GM | vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3082 | 126 | |
| 8 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3116 | 125 | |
| 9 | GM | mitrabhaa | Mitrabha Guha | 3030 | 120 | |
| 10 | GM | dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3073 | 117 | |
| 11 | GM | tptagain | David Anton Guijarro | 3031 | 107 | |
| 12 | GM | WoodlandMagic | Gleb Dudin | 2751 | 97 | |
| 13 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3081 | 97 | |
| 14 | IM | Sven_Tica | Sven Tica | 2816 | 97 | |
| 15 | FM | EddieMarsalla | Ivan Vihor Krsnik Cohar | 2814 | 97 | |
| 16 | IM | The_Machine04 | Ruben Gideon Köllner | 2842 | 95 | |
| 17 | IM | Akewjon | Saidakbar Saydaliev | 2825 | 95 | |
| 18 | CM | aachess2006 | Adib Arkadan | 2739 | 92 | |
| 19 | IM | Stouuf | Stephane Bressac | 2769 | 91 | |
| 20 | IM | Aradhya2000 | Aradhya Garg | 2723 | 89 |
(Full final standings here.)
More than 15 players with Chess.com bullet ratings over 3000 participated in this week’s Bullet Brawl, with eight comprising an elite group of players with ratings over 3100: Tang, Gurel, Bortnyk, Jose Martinez, Haowen Xue, Sina Movahed, Parham Maghsoodloo, and Tuan Minh Le. Despite the strength of the field, none were able to keep up with Tang’s electric pace.
On top for a 12th time, @penguingm1 gets the bullet W this weekend!
Only Hikaru and Danya have won #BulletBrawl on more occasions 👏 pic.twitter.com/lxdciVVxsy
— Chess.com (@chesscom) August 2, 2025
Tang’s event began like almost all of the previous titlists, with an emphatic streak. GMs Bortnyk and Pranav Venkatesh were the strongest players to be put to the sword by Tang in this period, after both dropping material in the middlegame. Tang’s conversion against Bortnyk was particularly instructive.
Losses to IM Shamil Arslanov and GM David Anton Guijarro then preceded Tang’s longest winning streak of the event.
Among these games, two stood out. The first was a 13-move crusher against IM Alon Mindlin in the Four Knights Game: Spanish, Classical Variation, which culminated in a surprising knight sacrifice.
The second, and arguably more impressive game, came against Egyptian GM Adam Fawzy. Tang masterfully deconstructed Fawzy’s Benoni Defense with a perfectly timed pawn break, shredding the center and infiltrating his opponent’s position, having used only 22 seconds on the clock.
Although Tang’s start was solid, Gurel and Bortnyk kept the pressure on the 25-year-old throughout—the former even scored positively against the winner (5.5-4.5), but lost the last two, hence quashing his comeback chances.
The penultimate game between the pair was the most critical, and in this game, Gurel popped a pawn on move 12 and was unable to rectify the deficit.
The battle for second place ended up being a tighter affair, with only one point separating Gurel and Bortnyk. Their placements were decided by a head-to-head clash, which the Turkish prodigy won. Bortnyk had little time to mull over the result, as he backed up Bullet Brawl with an over-the-board blitz tournament at the Charlotte Chess Club.
With eight wins to his name in 2025, Tang is only two titles shy of equalling Nakamura’s year-to-date record. Should he surpass his compatriot, Tang would become the first player to win more titles than Nakamura in a calendar year.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 44 | 10 | 19 | 15 |
| Daniel Naroditsky | 29 | 5 | 14 | 10 |
| Andrew Tang | 12 | 8 | 4 | 0 |
| Oleksandr Bortnyk | 12 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
|
Ediz Gurel
|
4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 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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