GM Jeffery Xiong is off the mark in 2026 after he won August’s second Bullet Brawl off the back of an explosive 10/10 start. Playing more than 70 games in the two-hour arena, Xiong accrued a score of 159 and earned the $400 first prize, leaving IM Yoseph Taher, GM Nihal Sarin, IM Sergey Sklokin, and IM Renato Terry to squabble over the $250, $150, and $100 second-fourth prizes.
For the fourth week in a row, Greek FM Anastasia Avramidou won the best women’s prize, this time with a nine-point margin over Iranian WIM Melika Mohammadi.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will begin on Saturday, August 15, at 12 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. CET.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Longest Streak |
| 1 | GM | jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3262 | 159 | 10 | |
| 2 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3226 | 146 | 9 | |
| 3 | GM | nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3300 | 137 | 6 | |
| 4 | IM | Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 3159 | 134 | 10 | |
| 5 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3219 | 134 | 6 | |
| 6 | FM | bubeliang | Havard Haug | 3270 | 129 | 6 | |
| 7 | GM | mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3167 | 126 | 7 | |
| 8 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3193 | 125 | 9 | |
| 9 | GM | Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 3167 | 120 | 15 | |
| 10 | GM | dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3133 | 115 | 9 | |
| 11 | IM | Alonmindlin | Alon Mindlin | 3035 | 113 | 5 | |
| 12 | GM | ChessSharkz | Kayden Troff | 2999 | 112 | 4 | |
| 13 | IM | Boundless_Strike | Shamil Arslanov | 2932 | 102 | 4 | |
| 14 | IM | Aakash-Dalvi7 | Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi | 2970 | 101 | 4 | |
| 15 | FM | Nicki2013 | Nikolay Kleimenov | 2930 | 99 | 6 | |
| 16 | FM | anasta10 | Anastasia Avramidou | 2891 | 98 | 5 | |
| 17 | IM | crazyluzhinTh3 | Oscar Gerardo Sanchez Enriquez | 2830 | 93 | 6 | |
| 18 | GM | ContrVersia | Valery Kazakouski | 2803 | 93 | 5 | |
| 19 | IM | IM_Alex_Ivanov | Alex Ivanov | 2852 | 93 | 4 | |
| 20 | FM | wqws | Kaivalya Sandip Nagare | 2846 | 92 | 5 |
(Full final standings here.)
The 25-year-old Xiong is always a delight to watch in the Bullet Brawl arena due to his adventurousness in the opening phase and tactical panache. On Saturday, in a field featuring GMs Nihal, Oleksandr Bortnyk, Alexey Sarana, Sergei Zhigalko, David Paravyan, and 180 other titled players, Xiong announced himself immediately with a 10-game winning streak.
Yet, it wasn’t the length of the streak that caught the attention of his adversaries and spectators, but the fact he played 1.b4!? or 1…b5!? (1…a6!? was played against 1.e4 with transposition in mind) in all of these games.
The anti-theoretical openings, known as the Orangutan, Sokolsky, or Polish for White, and the Polish Defense for Black, are rarely played at master level; however, this was not Xiong’s first rodeo.
In his first clash with a GM, Martyn Kravtsiv, Xiong highlighted the benefit of unorthodoxy. By move four, the game began spiraling into obscurity, and the players were forced to freestyle their way through the middlegame. By move 20, Kravtsiv was submitting his resignation.
Against Romanian CM Mihnea-George Coman in the next game, Xiong fought his way back from a worse, albeit complicated, position before spotting a bone-crunching, decisive sacrifice on move 31. See if you can spot the combination below.
After Xiong’s streak was snapped by IM Reza Mahdavi, he went through a lean patch where he managed to score just 3/10, allowing a pack including Zhigalko, FM Havard Haug, Taher, and Terry to overtake him.Â
The lead changed hands several times at the top until the final quarter, which is when Xiong returned from the abyss, reclaimed his throne, and never let go.
A late comeback win over Bortnyk from a piece down exemplified the grit of the American en route to a 13-point victory.
With this being his third win, Xiong moves up to equal eighth on the all-time leaderboard and is the 11th player to win three Bullet Brawls.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2026 Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | 63 | 14 | 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 Arjun Erigaisi | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GM Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| GM Jeffery Xiong | 3 | 1 | 2 | 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 Tuan Minh Le | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 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 |
| 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!
Previous coverage: