Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Longest Streak |
| 1 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3300 | 154 | 11 | |
| 2 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3239 | 145 | 11 | |
| 3 | GM | Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3202 | 138 | 6 | |
| 4 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3214 | 133 | 9 | |
| 5 | GM | legendisback1 | Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus | 3197 | 130 | 10 | |
| 6 | GM | vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3150 | 128 | 8 | |
| 7 | IM | Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 3109 | 127 | 7 | |
| 8 | CM | Germanovs_Georgijs | Georgijs Germanovs | 3085 | 126 | 8 | |
| 9 | GM | ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 3115 | 126 | 5 | |
| 10 | IM | Dolphin_2010 | Aleksandr Usov | 3179 | 125 | 8 | |
| 11 | IM | IlanSchnaider | Ilan Schnaider | 3112 | 124 | 7 | |
| 12 | GM | mitrabhaa | Mitrabha Guha | 3080 | 118 | 8 | |
| 13 | FM | TrimitziosP7 | Petros Trimitzios | 3036 | 116 | 6 | |
| 14 | IM | kingnb | Nitish Belurkar | 3064 | 115 | 6 | |
| 15 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3128 | 108 | 13 | |
| 16 | CM | NikaVolkov | Nika Volkov | 3067 | 108 | 6 | |
| 17 | CM | MVM2008 | Matei-Valeriu Mogirzan | 2855 | 106 | 5 | |
| 18 | FM | TheRabbit19 | Andrei Negrean | 2954 | 106 | 5 | |
| 19 | FM | mightysmasher | Supratit Banerjee | 2839 | 105 | 4 | |
| 20 | IM | chess_master_8820 | Radin Yadegar | 3031 | 104 | 6 |
(Full final standings here.)
While the previous two editions were soundly won by GM Hikaru Nakamura, the absence of Bullet Brawl’s GOAT left the door open for a tightly contested race among the event’s regular contenders.
A group of 3000+ rated players, including GMs Bortnyk, Terry, Le, Bluebaum, and Yagiz Erdogmus, as well as speed chess specialists such as FM Petros Trimitzios and CM Nika Volkov, jockeyed for the top spot.Â
Terry, who scored 17/20 in the first quarter, was one of the strongest starters, and he came close to toppling the eventual winner in the first game of the event. Having procured an advantage against Bortnyk’s Alekhine’s Defense, Terry missed a chance to leave his opponent in zugzwang in a rook endgame.
The first and second place-getters would clash another seven times with the points being split 4-4 by the end of the arena. With their results against each other effectively cancelled out, their dominance over other players was put under the magnifying glass.
An 11-game streak for Bortnyk in the second half, featuring wins over GMs Christopher Yoo (thrice), Le, Bluebaum, and Guha Mitrabha, propelled the Ukrainian to pull away from the pack.
His game against the latter was particularly brutal—a single error by Mitrabha on move 19 allowed Bortnyk to take command with a three-move combination ending with a rook sacrifice. The resulting endgame still required technique; however, Bortnyk duly converted.
In the following game, Bortnyk punished Yoo for keeping his king in the center of the board, although ironically, had Yoo run his king further up the board with 15…Kf5, the evaluation would have been close to equal.
With a gap having opened up between him and the chasing pack, Bortnyk scored 7.5/8 to cement his position. In one of these games, Bortnyk notched one of his finest, albeit messy, victories over Erdogmus—28 moves and two brilliancies were all it took to confirm checkmate.
In the end, Bortnyk won by a nine-point margin ahead of Terry. With this being his 17th title, Bortnyk now sits two wins clear of GM Andrew Tang on the all-time leaderboard.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2026 Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | 57 | 8 | 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 | 9 | 1 | 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 |
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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