GM Arjun Erigaisi became the second Indian player, alongside GM Nihal Sarin, to win an edition of Bullet Brawl after a dominant performance on Saturday. A 12-game winning streak catapulted Arjun into first place, and he then sealed the $400 first prize with a score of 166 points.
GM Matthias Bluebaum picked up $250 for finishing in second, while multi-time Bullet Brawl victors, GMs Andrew Tang and Oleksandr Bortnyk, earned $150 and $100, respectively, for finishing in third and fourth.
The top-scoring women’s player for the second week in a row was Iranian WIM Melika Mohammadi.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 12 p.m. ET/18:00 CET.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Longest Streak |
| 1 | GM | GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 3263 | 166 | 12 | |
| 2 | GM | Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3210 | 148 | 7 | |
| 3 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3191 | 143 | 8 | |
| 4 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3282 | 140 | 9 | |
| 5 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3221 | 136 | 9 | |
| 6 | IM | FaustinoOro | Faustino Oro | 3167 | 135 | 8 | |
| 7 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3172 | 134 | 12 | |
| 8 | GM | amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 3152 | 125 | 9 | |
| 9 | GM | Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 3075 | 123 | 9 | |
| 10 | GM | Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 3147 | 122 | 5 | |
| 11 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3159 | 120 | 6 | |
| 12 | IM | Kacparov | Kacper Drozdowski | 3086 | 119 | 7 | |
| 13 | GM | FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3144 | 115 | 9 | |
| 14 | FM | TrimitziosP7 | Petros Trimitzios | 3059 | 114 | 5 | |
| 15 | FM | Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 3047 | 108 | 12 | |
| 16 | CM | Romik2012 | Роман Носач | 3068 | 107 | 6 | |
| 17 | GM | ckgchess | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | 3033 | 107 | 5 | |
| 18 | IM | kingnb | Nitish Belurkar | 3004 | 106 | 5 | |
| 19 | GM | KNVB | Aman Hambleton | 3022 | 103 | 6 | |
| 20 | IM | IlanSchnaider | Ilan Schnaider | 2979 | 103 | 5 |
(Full final standings here.)
In a complete juxtaposition of GM Hikaru Nakamura’s “monopoly month” in January, a different Bullet brawl winner has been crowned in each of February’s editions thus far.
On Saturday, no fewer than four super-GMs, including Arjun, Dmitry Andreikin, Parham Maghsoodloo, and Amin Tabatabaei participated, and they were joined by former winners in GMs Bluebaum, Tang, Bortnyk, Tuan Minh Le, as well as IMs Renato Terry and Yoseph Taher, several of whom streamed the event.
From the outset, Terry replicated the kind of form that saw him seize his first title in the previous edition. After starting with 16/17, he found himself leading, though he was closely followed by the hyperbullet world champion, Tang.
In arguably his best win of the streak, the Peruvian dynamo bowled over GM Madhi Gholami Orimi with a temporary piece sacrifice on move 16.
Unfortunately for Terry, the second half of his event would not be as fruitful. The defending champion would go on to lose a total of 19 games, making him an improbable podium finisher.
As Terry and Tang wavered, Arjun rose to the occasion. When the halfway point drew near, the world number-11 dispatched IM Reza Mahdavi with a brutal queen sacrifice, foreshadowing a purple patch that would see him climb to the top.
For the next 11 games, Arjun was simply untouchable. Some of the main threats to his title aspirations, including Tabatabaei and, most importantly, Tang, were put to the sword by Arjun during this streak.
Arjun’s 4/6 score against Tang ended up being one of the catalysts for his victory, and he also won his sole game against the second-place Bluebaum, after winning an exchange and consolidating his advantage.
Following this game, Arjun scored 7.5/10, which secured him victory by a sizeable 18-point margin. For the 22-year-old former prodigy, a Bullet Brawl win should give a boost of confidence after a flat Tata Steel Chess 2026 performance, which is timely considering he will front up for German Bundesliga fixtures at the end of February.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2026 Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | 54 | 5 | 15 | 19 | 15 |
| GM Daniel Naroditsky | 32 | 0 | 8 | 14 | 10 |
| GM Oleksandr Bortnyk | 14 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 3 |
| GM Andrew Tang | 14 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| 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 Arjun Erigaisi | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| IM Renato Terry | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 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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