GM Oleksandr Bortnyk is $400 richer and has added a 15th Bullet Brawl title to his name after coming out on top of what he described as “one of the hardest” Bullet Brawls he has won. With a score of 150 points, Bortnyk finished two points ahead of $250 second place-getter, GM Emin Ohanyan, and a further one point ahead of the $150 third prize winner, GM Andrew Tang.
The $100 best women’s prize was also hotly contested, however the experienced FM Anastasia Avramidou was able to lock it down with a three game win-streak in the final minutes of the arena.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will commence on Saturday, Mar. 14, at 12 p.m. ET/18:00 CET.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Longest Streak |
| 1 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3245 | 150 | 7 | |
| 2 | GM | OhanyanEminChess | Emin Ohanyan | 3226 | 148 | 7 | |
| 3 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3247 | 147 | 8 | |
| 4 | GM | Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3195 | 144 | 10 | |
| 5 | GM | nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3236 | 144 | 9 | |
| 6 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3221 | 140 | 6 | |
| 7 | FM | ilqar_74 | Rustam Rustamov | 3102 | 120 | 9 | |
| 8 | GM | mitrabhaa | Mitrabha Guha | 3174 | 120 | 9 | |
| 9 | GM | GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 3158 | 118 | 6 | |
| 10 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3078 | 115 | 8 | |
| 11 | GM | Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 3061 | 115 | 8 | |
| 12 | IM | rezamahdavi2008 | Reza Mahdavi | 3102 | 109 | 6 | |
| 13 | CM | NikaVolkov | Nika Volkov | 3012 | 108 | 7 | |
| 14 | FM | pavle896 | Erekle Tabatadze | 2912 | 107 | 6 | |
| 15 | FM | Herzog2012 | Mark Smirnov | 2951 | 105 | 7 | |
| 16 | IM | Aakash-Dalvi7 | Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi | 2916 | 105 | 4 | |
| 17 | IM | IlanSchnaider | Ilan Schnaider | 2976 | 103 | 5 | |
| 18 | CM | TorpedoKnight | Harry Bryant | 2905 | 103 | 4 | |
| 19 | IM | kingnb | Nitish Belurkar | 3051 | 101 | 5 | |
| 20 | FM | Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 3025 | 100 | 11 |
(Full final standings here.)
Star-studded would be an understatement for Saturday’s Bullet Brawl, and when the likes of GMs Arjun Erigaisi, Matthias Bluebaum, Nihal Sarin, Bortnyk, and Tang registered, high-octane drama became a guarantee.
For the first quarter of the event, GM Jose Martinez held a narrow lead over the 180-player field after scoring 53 points, though this would be short-lived. A rough patch of five games where Martinez was paired twice with Nihal, as well as Arjun and Bluebaum, saw him score only a single half point, and he was quickly overtaken by a pack of chasers.
The foremost of these chasers was the recently minted super-GM Nihal, whose 21.5/24 start was packed with flair befitting of a top-25 player. In the opening game of the arena, Nihal flattened his countryman Arjun with an incisive knight sacrifice, prompting his opponent’s resignation on the 14th move.
Minutes later, another of Nihal’s opponents found himself in a similar “knightmare” following a combination that punctured what most would consider a solid defensive structure for Black.
While Nihal was clearly in good form, five other players were hot on his heels, and this group, featuring Bortnyk, Ohanyan, Tang, Bluebaum, and IM Renato Terry, would all end up finishing within 10 points of each other.
Of these players, Bluebaum strung together the longest winning streak of 10 games which saw him climb to the top. Although Bluebaum’s streak was eclipsed by the 20th placed FM Sergey Sklokin (who won 11 games in a row), the caliber of Bluebaum’s opposition made his streak the most impressive of the day.
In the last quarter of the event, six points separated the top five players. Then, Bortnyk, a player who had consistently been near the top but not held the lead, made his move.
There was no one streak that propelled Bortnyk, however, timely, gritty victories over his closest rivals helped him break through.
A showdown between Bortnyk and the leader Bluebaum, which saw the former force mass liquidation into a winning ending, went a long way towards deciding this week’s winner.
Tang, who was also still in contention, was toppled by Bortnyk in the very next game, giving Bortnyk enough of a buffer to see out the arena.
Bortnyk is the only player other than GM Hikaru Nakamura to win multiple Bullet Brawls in 2026 so far.
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 | 15 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 3 |
| GM Andrew Tang | 15 | 1 | 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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