GM Hikaru Nakamura’s perfect record in Bullet Brawl in 2026 has finally come to an end courtesy of an exceptional performance by the 17-year-old GM Ediz Gurel. Gurel recorded one of the all-time greatest starts with 17 consecutive wins and clinched the $400 first prize by a single point ahead of GM Nihal Sarin.
The latter will receive $250 for his efforts, while GMs Christopher Yoo and Nakamura will receive $150 and $100 for finishing third and fourth, respectively. The winner of the $100 best women’s prize is Greek FM Anastasia Avramidou, who will receive a dollar for every point she scored en route to an 18th-place finish.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Longest Streak |
| 1 | GM | gurelediz | Ediz Gürel | 3331 | 160 | 17 | |
| 2 | GM | nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3312 | 159 | 12 | |
| 3 | GM | ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 3258 | 148 | 5 | |
| 4 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3328 | 143 | 6 | |
| 5 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3222 | 142 | 20 | |
| 6 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3241 | 127 | 7 | |
| 7 | IM | rezamahdavi2008 | Reza Mahdavi | 3207 | 126 | 7 | |
| 8 | GM | Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3214 | 125 | 9 | |
| 9 | IM | Kacparov | Kacper Drozdowski | 3082 | 121 | 7 | |
| 10 | GM | Bardiya06 | Bardiya Daneshvar | 3118 | 115 | 6 | |
| 11 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3127 | 114 | 9 | |
| 12 | IM | Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 3055 | 113 | 10 | |
| 13 | GM | Nuvas | Evgenios Ioannidis | 3034 | 112 | 7 | |
| 14 | GM | dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3124 | 109 | 6 | |
| 15 | CM | NikaVolkov | Nika Volkov | 3022 | 107 | 4 | |
| 16 | IM | chess_master_8820 | Radin Yadegar | 3020 | 103 | 4 | |
| 17 | IM | kingnb | Nitish Belurkar | 2972 | 100 | 5 | |
| 18 | FM | anasta10 | Anastasia Avramidou | 2822 | 100 | 5 | |
| 19 | IM | crazyluzhinTh3 | Oscar Gerardo Sanchez Enriquez | 2799 | 100 | 4 | |
| 20 | FM | vgjxtyi | Abolfazl Amirinasab | 2806 | 97 | 7 |
(Full final standings here.)
With a field featuring the likes of GMs Nakamura, Gurel, Nihal, Tuan Minh Le, Matthias Bluebaum, Sina Movahed, and IM Yoseph Taher, the victor in Saturday’s Bullet Brawl needed to do something special to claim the top spot. And Gurel did.
The Turkish whiz kid flew out of the blocks with 17 wins in a row and barely broke a sweat, spotting decisive combinations at lightning speed. In his first game against Norwegian FM Havard Haug, Gurel found three brilliant sacrifices in four moves and wrapped up the game in a mere 24 moves.
Later in the streak, Gurel found a winning idea against Le in a knight, king, and pawn ending, devastating his opponent who had successfully argued for equality until the 55th move.
One player, Indian IM Nitish Belurkar, who happened to be streaming the event on YouTube, came the closest to toppling Gurel in his streak, but was flagged a move before he could trade off Gurel’s last piece.
Despite having a seemingly comfortable lead, the likes of Nakamura, Sarin, and Yoo began to gain on Gurel after his streak was snapped by the former. The final score between Nakamura and Gurel was 7-5 in favor of the American; however, his longest streak of the day was six wins, which severely affected his ability to put points on the board.
Another player who scored positively against Gurel was Nihal, and unlike Nakamura, he did manage to put together a few streaks that brought him to within a single point of the leader.
As if Caissa herself was scripting the tournament, Gurel and Nihal paired in what would become their final game of the arena in a winner-take-all showdown. To add to the drama, the players had to keep in mind that there was just over a minute and a half left on the arena clock.Â
Playing with the white pieces, Nihal opted for the Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack and capitalized on the clumsy 25…Bb8?? by Gurel. Nihal continued to play quickly and clinically, and his advantage soon blew out to nine points of material.
By the 66th move, checkmate in one was inevitable, and Gurel had just seven seconds left on his clock. In a cruel twist of fate, the game was aborted due to the arena clock expiring.
Thus, Gurel was declared the winner by a single point ahead of Nihal. Not far behind them were Yoo and Nakamura.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2026 Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | 59 | 10 | 15 | 19 | 15 |
| GM Daniel Naroditsky | 32 | N/A | 8 | 14 | 10 |
| GM Oleksandr Bortnyk | 17 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 3 |
| GM Andrew Tang | 15 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| GM Ediz Gurel | 10 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 0 |
| GM Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| GM Arjun Erigaisi | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| IM Renato Terry | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Yagiz Erdogmus | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 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 Alireza Firouzja | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GM Andy Woodward | 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 |
Few players have been able to challenge Nakamura in the Bullet Brawl format since its inception in 2023 and before Saturday, he had yet to play an edition where he did not place first. However, by his own admission on several occasions over the last year, Nakamura believes that Gurel and his compatriot GM Yagiz Erdogmus are among the most serious threats to his dominance in the future.
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!
Previous coverage: