HomeChess2026 Bullet Chess Championship Day 4: Nihal Dethrones Firouzja With 15-Game Winning...

2026 Bullet Chess Championship Day 4: Nihal Dethrones Firouzja With 15-Game Winning Streak

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By sportsarena.pro
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GM Nihal Sarin won the 2026 Bullet Chess Championship after pulling off what once seemed impossible. After taking down GMs Andrew Tang and Arjun Erigaisi in the Losers Bracket, he went on to win back-to-back matches against three-time and defending champion GM Alireza Firouzja, scoring a 15-game winning streak along the way.

It was Nihal’s first time ever reaching the Grand Final, and as a reward for taking down the favorite, he’s earned $10,000.  

Bracket After Day 4

Nihal won four matches on Saturday, finally taking down Firouzja 15.5-7.5 in the Grand Final and 9.5-4.5 in the Grand Final Reset.

Losers Semifinal & Final: Nihal Beats Tang & Arjun

Nihal’s long journey began with an 11-6 victory over Tang. Though Tang started the match with a three-point lead, Nihal caught up and then took over. It was similar to Tang’s match against Arjun on Friday, when he started the match with four consecutive wins but suffered the same fate.

After a draw in game one, the match seemed to be all Tang in the beginning. In game three, Nihal blitzed out 27.Re2??, was met with the violent 27…Bxg3!!, and resigned without another move. It was an easy win for Tang.

But the match took a turn and Nihal won three consecutive games. He won game six with a crushing attack, as his own king hid behind an enemy pawn on g7.

Nihal took the lead in the match for the first time after winning game 10. He was already up three pawns, but the skewer with 35…Bb8 sealed it.

The Indian GM went on to mount an 8-5 lead, but Tang brought the margin back down to two with a crushing attack. GM Eric Hansen said, “Nihal played quite provocatively. He invited Andrew to checkmate him this game!”

Nevertheless, Nihal won the last three games of the match, taking it by five points. In game 15, he displayed full-board awareness in milliseconds by finding 39.Qa8+ for a checkmate, when he had four seconds against eight—an extended time scramble would have favored the second player.

Next up was the Indian clash of Nihal vs. Arjun in the Losers Final, which the former won 13.5-7.5. While Arjun delivered his trademark style of chess, brilliant attacks, and unexpected tactics, Nihal’s experience in bullet chess scored him many critical points.

The players traded blows early on. Nihal won game one, they drew the second, and Arjun returned to win game three in just 20 moves.

One game later, Nihal took a two-point lead by winning on time in an objectively drawn king and pawn endgame. “Arjun’s bullet inexperience is costing him!” Hansen observed as Arjun could not keep up with Nihal’s mouse skills.

Inexperience with the fast time control also led to mouse slips, like in game six when Arjun accidentally played a version of the Bongcloud Opening by putting his king on e2. Losing the right to castle and wasting another move to fix his king made him easy prey for Nihal, who went 4-2.

Arjun had his moments of brilliance. For example, he won the following game to bring the match back to one point.

But that would be one of Arjun’s last wins in the match. In the remainder, they would make three draws, Arjun would win two more, and Nihal would win seven more times. The following game didn’t last 30 seconds as Nihal blew his opponent off the board to go up 7.5-6.5.

Game 18 featured an impressive conversion as Nihal, rather than grabbing the rook on e2, went directly for checkmate. Hansen praised his form: “Not even grabbing the material, that just shows the form Nihal’s in!”

He’d carry that form, and augment it, into the Grand Final.

Grand Final: Nihal Dominates

The match started as one would expect, with Firouzja picking up a slight lead early in the half, but when Nihal evened the score at 7.5-7.5, he didn’t stop there. He went on to play what he called “surely the best bullet of my life.”

Firouzja won game one, though even there Nihal proved how resilient he was going to be; totally lost, he found a stalemate trick that just barely didn’t save the game.

Firouzja continued to stay in the lead. If he lost a game, he’d recover right away and stay a point or two ahead. When Nihal won the following game to cut the lead to one point, GM Aman Hambleton claimed, “I actually think that Nihal Sarin is the best time scrambler, period. What we’re seeing here is absolutely mind-blowing,” though there’s no way he could have predicted what was about to happen.

Nihal took the lead for the first time in the match, 8.5-7.5, and then he just kept on winning. That lead grew to two when he found the following checkmate in the endgame. 

Nihal won every single remaining game—10 games in a row—to clean up the first match. Because Firouzja hadn’t yet lost a match, he was entitled to a Grand Final Reset, where this time the match clock would be just 30 minutes.

Rather than slow down, Nihal’s momentum just kept going as he won five games in a row to start the second match. By the time he won the third game, Firouzja laughed out loud in disbelief.

Firouzja finally scored his first win to bring the score to 5-1, but it was hardly any consolation. He’d go on to score 5.5 points in total, but he’d never bring the margin down to two points.

As Hansen put it, “Nihal can make you question your chess on a very deep and dark level,” and that’s what happened. Firouzja got a little momentum going, but the match was just about sealed when Nihal won again to go up 8.5-3.5 with just five minutes on the match clock.

Nihal can make you question your chess on a very deep and dark level.

—Eric Hansen

Though Nihal missed a one-move queen trap, he still dominated the game—not a sliver of a chance for Firouzja.

Nihal joined for a brief interview, where he was surprised to learn he’d won 15 games in a row. He said, “Really, 15? I had no idea!” He added, “I definitely did not think I would beat him, and I just wanted to try to fight.”

He said he didn’t think this made him the best bullet player in the world, but he’s certainly up there if he has a good day. He said that Firouzja was on tilt, while “I was managing to find a very good rhythm. It was just not his day today…. It happens!”

Hansen pointed out that Nihal’s not just playing quickly, but he’s still making good moves even in the time scrambles. Nihal attributed some of his bullet skills to practicing with Arjun years ago; they used to play a lot of chess with a time control of 10 seconds plus a one-second increment.

We’ll have to wait till next year to see if Nihal can pull off something like this again. A major question will be, Who will be his next big challenge—Firouzja or someone else?

The 2026 Bullet Chess Championship took place on Chess.com from June 24-27, after Play-ins on June 23. It is the strongest online bullet tournament and determines who is the fastest chess player in the world. The time control is 1+0. The total prize fund is $50,000.

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