GM Hikaru Nakamura tightened his iron grip over the Bullet Brawl arena on Saturday after winning his fourth straight title of 2026. In this week’s edition, Nakamura timed his streaks well and posted a score of 165 after chasing down Turkish phenom, GM Ediz Gurel.
Nakamura will receive the $400 first prize once again, Gurel will take home $250, and GMs Tuan Minh Le, and Andrew Tang will receive $150 and $100. The $100 best women’s prize went to WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya for her 31st-place finish.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, Jan. 31, at 12 p.m. ET/18:00 CET.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3326 | 165 | |
| 2 | GM | gurelediz | Ediz Gürel | 3285 | 155 | |
| 3 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3276 | 144 | |
| 4 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3191 | 137 | |
| 5 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3221 | 135 | |
| 6 | GM | Njal28 | Aram Hakobyan | 3159 | 134 | |
| 7 | FM | Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 3048 | 131 | |
| 8 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3154 | 127 | |
| 9 | GM | Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 3137 | 121 | |
| 10 | CM | Romik2012 | Роман Носач | 2999 | 119 | |
| 11 | GM | Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 2977 | 116 | |
| 12 | GM | KNVB | Aman Hambleton | 3066 | 115 | |
| 13 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3078 | 113 | |
| 14 | CM | Tunartank | Tunar Davudov | 3000 | 113 | |
| 15 | FM | Bryanl106 | Bryan Enming Lin | 2966 | 111 | |
| 16 | FM | pavle896 | Erekle Tabatadze | 2893 | 110 | |
| 17 | IM | Gianmarco_es | Gianmarco Leiva | 2902 | 109 | |
| 18 | CM | Hamlet | Hamlet Antonyan | 2839 | 109 | |
| 19 | GM | jcibarra | José Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 3022 | 107 | |
| 20 | FM | CrtN88 | Halil Ozgun Kerem | 2794 | 104 |
(Full final standings here.)
694 titled players have taken part in the first four Bullet Brawls of the year, however, only one player has tasted victory. With 53 wins to his name, Nakamura is far and away the most prolific Bullet Brawl winner.
Saturday’s event was packed to the brim with talent and included the likes of GMs Tang, Le, Oleksandr Bortnyk, Sergei Zhigalko, and Aram Hakobyan. However, it was Gurel who emerged as the most dangerous threat to Nakamura’s 2026 domination.
The Turkish GM took the lead early off the back of a near-perfect, 20/21 start, while Nakamura shook off what he described as “sketch” rhythm. In their first clash against each other, Gurel steered the game towards a closed ending and harnessed the power of the knight pair against Nakamura’s bishops.
Against German WGM Vera Juergens, Gurel demonstrated the importance of piece harmony and activity by marching his king from g8 to f4 to assist with building a mating net around white’s king.
Meanwhile, Nakamura stayed in the hunt by seizing opportunities to convert swiftly when they arose. While playing Lebanese FM Zayne-Eddine El Zein, Nakamura executed a version of “Lolli’s Mate” after drawing out his opponent’s king.
As the halfway point neared, Gurel’s streak was snapped by Bortnyk, and from this point onwards, the leader struggled to build lengthy streaks. Three games in particular, two against Bortnyk and one against IM Renato Terry, lasted 91, 101 and 122 moves, respectively. This slowed Gurel and left the door open for a Nakamura resurgence.
11 and 10-game undefeated streaks separated only by a single loss to Le put Nakamura back in contention and importantly, he toppled Gurel five times during this period.
In their fifth clash, the pair dueled in the Four Knights Game: Scotch, Krause Gambit for 26 moves before Gurel played the fatal 26…Rbe8, allowing Nakamura to punch through on the kingside with an incisive rook sacrifice.
Although it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the world number two, he lifted when it mattered most. A four-game streak, which included wins over Bortnyk, Tang (twice), and Zhigalko in the dying minutes of the arena cemented his 53rd title overall and fourth for the year.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2026 Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | 53 | 4 | 15 | 19 | 15 |
| GM Daniel Naroditsky | 32 | 0 | 8 | 14 | 10 |
| GM Andrew Tang | 14 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| GM Oleksandr Bortnyk | 13 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 3 |
| GM Ediz Gurel | 8 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 0 |
| GM Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| GM Nihal Sarin | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| GM Jeffery Xiong | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Sam Sevian | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Yagiz Erdogmus | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Alireza Firouzja | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Matthias Bluebaum | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Tuan Minh Le | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| IM Yoseph Taher | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| IM Reza Mahdavi | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Javokhir Sindarov | 1 | 0 | 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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