Bullet Brawl‘s all-time title leader GM Hikaru Nakamura outpaced 156 titled players in Saturday’s event moments after announcing that he and his wife, WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan, are expecting their first child.
While streaming live on Kick, Nakamura notched his 10th victory of 2025 and 44th since early 2023 after scoring 53/69 for a grand total of 169 points, earning himself the $400 first prize.
GMs Gurel Ediz, Daniel Naroditsky, and Andrew Tang rounded out the top four and won $250, $150, and $100, respectively for their efforts, while FM Anastasia Avramidou‘s 25th placed finish earned her the $100 best women’s prize.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, July 19, at noon ET/17:00 CEST.
Standings
| Number | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3343 | 169 | |
| 2 | GM | gurelediz | Ediz Gurel | 3300 | 157 | |
| 3 | GM | DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3218 | 156 | |
| 4 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3194 | 148 | |
| 5 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3221 | 147 | |
| 6 | GM | Indianlad | S.L. Narayanan | 3058 | 131 | |
| 7 | GM | HVillagra | Cristobal Henriquez | 3124 | 131 | |
| 8 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3099 | 130 | |
| 9 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3132 | 129 | |
| 10 | IM | FaustinoOro | Faustino Oro | 3104 | 125 | |
| 11 | GM | Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3104 | 123 | |
| 12 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3006 | 119 | |
| 13 | GM | hansen | Eric Hansen | 2988 | 115 | |
| 14 | FM | L1m96 | Evgenij Lesovoi | 2898 | 111 | |
| 15 | FM | Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 2853 | 107 | |
| 16 | IM | johnathan113 | Johnathan Bakalchuk | 2870 | 105 | |
| 17 | IM | Akewjon | Saidakbar Saydaliev | 2772 | 103 | |
| 18 | IM | MonsterChess_uz | Mukhammadali Abdurakhmonov | 2870 | 102 | |
| 19 | IM | Sven_Tica | Sven Tica | 2758 | 100 | |
| 20 | IM | blitzking1729 | Srihari L R | 2878 | 99 | |
(Full final standings here.)
No more surprises from @GMHikaru today as he claimed his 44th(!!!) #BulletBrawl title 😠pic.twitter.com/NNy1cPZ1b3
— Chess.com (@chesscom) July 12, 2025
Saturday’s Bullet Brawl was spearheaded by several 2600+ rated GMs, including Nakamura, Gurel, Naroditsky, Tang, Oleksandr Bortnyk, Matthias Bluebaum, and Eric Hansen. Five of these seven players had previously won Bullet Brawls, and their combined wins total 98/113, or 86.7% (rounded).
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 44 | 10 | 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 |
An electric 13.5/14 start by Nakamura set the tone for the two-hour arena, and the only player able to steal a half-point from him during this period was the Turkish prodigy Gurel, who boasts a 3300 Chess.com bullet rating.
Nakamura put on a calculation clinic in the early stages of the event—Georgian streamer and WFM Lile Koridze was one of the players who found herself on the receiving end of one of Nakamura’s razor-sharp kingside sacrifices.
Nakamura’s chief challenger on Saturday was Gurel, who announced himself as a contender after defeating a string of the tournament’s best players, including Naroditsky, Bortnyk, Bluebaum, and Nakamura himself.
The game between Gurel and Nakamura came to a head when the latter played the dubious 20…Qxd4??, missing a tactic-laden riposte.
This game would hardly be the last between the pair, however. By the end of the arena, and off the back of a trio of wins for Nakamura, the score stood at 7-5 in favor of the American. The final three games, one of which included a slick king hunt, were what helped Nakamura pull ahead by 12 points.
The battle for third place came down to a single move between Gurel and Naroditsky despite Naroditsky playing 11 more games than Gurel during the arena. See if you can spot the crushing sacrifice that Gurel found to secure the $250 second prize below.
Although Nakamura has had a quiet year in terms of over-the-board events, he remains focused on his goal to qualify for the 2026 Candidates Tournament. Recently, while speaking about claiming the average-rating spot, he stated:
“I will be playing some tournaments, likely in September, maybe in August… probably not August, but likely September and October I’ll be playing some ‘Mickey Mouse’ tournaments, try to beat some IMs, and try to get my rating up a little bit.”
Time will tell whether Nakamura will achieve his longtime goal of becoming the FIDE World Chess Champion.
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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