For the 12th time in 2026, GM Hikaru Nakamura triumphed in the Bullet Brawl arena after he won 50, drew eight, and lost 11 games on Saturday. With a score of 172 points, Nakamura finished 27 points clear of the second placed GM Arjun Erigaisi, 30 ahead of GM Christopher Yoo, and 36 ahead of hyperbullet superstar, GM Andrew Tang.
The top four finishers will receive $400, $250, $150, and $100, respectively, while WIM Melika Mohammadi secured the $100 best women’s prize for the second week in a row.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will begin on Saturday, July 18, at 12 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. CET.
Standings
| Number | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Longest Streak |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3337 | 172 | 11 | |
| 2 | GM | GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 3274 | 145 | 8 | |
| 3 | GM | ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 3252 | 142 | 5 | |
| 4 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3243 | 136 | 6 | |
| 5 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3177 | 134 | 8 | |
| 6 | IM | splendidkid | Goutham Krishna | 3166 | 132 | 9 | |
| 7 | IM | FaustinoOro | Faustino Oro | 3209 | 130 | 7 | |
| 8 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3187 | 125 | 8 | |
| 9 | GM | Volodar_Murzin | Volodar Murzin | 3120 | 124 | 7 | |
| 10 | GM | Kurufzugun | Cristobal Henriquez | 3067 | 120 | 7 | |
| 11 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3185 | 118 | 6 | |
| 12 | IM | Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 3127 | 116 | 5 | |
| 13 | GM | dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3150 | 111 | 11 | |
| 14 | FM | TrimitziosP7 | Petros Trimitzios | 2956 | 107 | 6 | |
| 15 | CM | Germanovs_Georgijs | Georgijs Germanovs | 3064 | 105 | 5 | |
| 16 | FM | BrockLesnar16 | Seyed Abolfazl Moosavifar | 2976 | 103 | 6 | |
| 17 | WIM | crazy_m_attack | Melika Mohammadi | 2877 | 103 | 5 | |
| 18 | GM | ChessSharkz | Kayden Troff | 3058 | 102 | 7 | |
| 19 | IM | Alonmindlin | Alon Mindlin | 2963 | 102 | 5 | |
| 20 | FM | fireemblem7 | Christian Amilcar Santiago Vilca | 2970 | 101 | 6 |
(Full final standings here.)
Saturday’s Bullet Brawl marked another comprehensive victory for the American juggernaut Nakamura in a field featuring last week’s winner, as well as GMs Yoo, Tang, Tuan Minh Le, Volodar Murzin, Oleksandr Bortnyk, and for a fleeting moment, GM Magnus Carlsen.
Unperturbed by an opening loss to Arjun, Nakamura conceded just two draws in his next 22 games, giving him a comfortable lead at the top. 3 0 Thursday specialist and IM Renato Terry became one of Nakamura’s victims after he played the careless 20…Bd5??, costing him an exchange.
Nakamura also notched several quick wins over opponents who committed pressure-induced blunders. The generally solid GM Sina Movahed was one such player who was felled in less than 20 moves due to being smother-checkmated.
At the halfway point, Arjun and Yoo had established themselves as Nakamura’s main challengers, however, Nakamura found ways to keep his nose in front any time they tried to close the gap. Arjun’s best streak of the event included wins over Murzin, GM Kayden Troff, Bortnyk, and IM Faustino Oro, though he was one-upped by Nakamura, who won 11 in a row.
In the final game of his streak, Nakamura defeated Arjun in 11 moves off the back of a pre-move mishap.
The pair played for a third and final time in the final quarter of the arena but by then Nakamura had already cemented his spot at the top. Still, the American clawed his way back from a losing position and punished an erroneous liquidation attempt by Arjun.
What Michael Phelps was to swimming and Wayne Gretzky was to ice hockey, Nakamura is to Bullet Brawl. Following his latest victory, Nakamura has won 61 of the 164 Bullet Brawl arenas since 2023, or just over 37%.
Accounting for a percentage of events he did not participate in, his win rate is close to 50%, an extraordinary feat considering around 200 titled players contest Bullet Brawl each week.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2026 Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | 61 | 12 | 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 |
| 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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