Fresh off the back of his sixth Freestyle Friday victory, GM Hikaru Nakamura reclaimed his spot on the Bullet Brawl throne after scoring 56/68 and accruing a total of 180 points on Saturday. Nakamura kicked off the arena with a 30-game unbeaten streak, all-but sealing his 45th title and the $400 first prize.
GMs Oleksandr Bortnyk, Tuan Minh Le, and Sina Movahed rounded out the top four and will receive $250, $150, and $100 for their efforts, respectively, while WIM Mitra Asgharzadeh will receive the $100 best women’s prize.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, Aug 16, at noon ET/17:00 CEST.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3341 | 180 | |
| 2 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3263 | 154 | |
| 3 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3192 | 138 | |
| 4 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3125 | 135 | |
| 5 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3097 | 132 | |
| 6 | GM | mitrabhaa | Mitrabha Guha | 3050 | 127 | |
| 7 | GM | hansen | Eric Hansen | 3065 | 124 | |
| 8 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3069 | 123 | |
| 9 | GM | DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3103 | 120 | |
| 10 | GM | Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3058 | 118 | |
| 11 | GM | Elsa167 | Leon Livaic | 3015 | 117 | |
| 12 | GM | dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3058 | 116 | |
| 13 | GM | Gareth-Bale11 | Mamikon Gharibyan | 2952 | 108 | |
| 14 | IM | Alonmindlin | Alon Mindlin | 2866 | 107 | |
| 15 | IM | Kacparov | Kacper Drozdowski | 2982 | 107 | |
| 16 | CM | F7m_08 | Famil Kishiev | 2915 | 106 | |
| 17 | IM | jakopogi | Michael Concio Jr. | 2971 | 105 | |
| 18 | GM | Azeryahu | Gyula Pap | 2867 | 102 | |
| 19 | FM | Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 2963 | 102 | |
| 20 | IM | johnathan113 | Johnathan Bakalchuk | 2873 | 102 |
(Full final standings here.)
Bullet Brawl was dominated by @GMHikaru once again this week. He won the arena for a 45th time!! 👑 pic.twitter.com/9tVUDF5Lnp
— Chess.com (@chesscom) August 9, 2025
139 titled players joined the latest edition, with many hoping to topple the undisputed king of the format. Four previous winners—GMs Daniel Naroditsky, Bortnyk, Le, and IM Yoseph Taher—also joined, along with a slew of 3000+ rated speedsters.
In the first hour of the arena, Nakamura was unstoppable. He scored 25 wins, seven of which were against GMs, and five draws, bringing up one of the longest streaks in the event’s history.
Nakamura’s tactical prowess, positional sense, and blistering pace made for a multi-faceted bullet chess exhibition. Many of his opponents resigned long before checkmate, such as Chinese GM Haowen Xue, who resigned on move 16 after nabbing a poisonous pawn.
The occasional positional squeeze also transpired despite the restricted time control. Against former Bullet Brawl winner IM Reza Mahdavi, Nakamura patiently waited for his opponent to slip before seizing the opportunity to procure an unassailable pair of passed pawns on the sixth rank.
Naturally, over the course of the streak, Nakamura found himself in some difficult positions but managed to wiggle his way out of trouble each time.
While playing the five-time World Open blitz champion IM Yaacov Norowitz, Nakamura overcame a three-point deficit and flagged Norowitz, all the while joking about the birthplace of GM Mikhail Tal on his stream.
Nakamura’s streak was eventually snapped by losses at the hands of Bortnyk and IM Renato Terry; however, his lead was already insurmountable. Scintillating conversions, such as in his game with Armenian GM Mamikon Gharibyan, only extended the gap at the top.
With this being his 45th victory, Nakamura has now won more Bullet Brawls than all other winners combined, excluding Naroditsky. With one more win in 2025, the 37-year-old’s year-to-date victories alone would see him sit in =3rd place on the all-time leaderboard.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 45 | 11 | 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 |
The other standout performer on Saturday was Asgharzadeh, whose score of 100 dominated the women’s category. The Iranian’s best scalp was against the Indian GM Guha Mitrabha, who boasts a peak bullet chess rating of 3176.
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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