Bullet Brawl Aug 1,2026: Nakamura Wins 50 Games, Claims 63rd Bullet Brawl Title

GM Hikaru Nakamura reclaimed the Bullet Brawl throne with relative ease on Saturday one week after missing out on the $400 first prize due to inferior tiebreaks. With 50 wins, eight draws, and only 11 losses to his name, Nakamura convincingly won the two-hour arena with a score of 176, 21 points clear of the previous winner, GM Tuan Minh Le.

Rounding out the top four and winning $150 and $100 respectively were GMs Haowen Xue and Pranesh M, while FM Anastasia Avramidou completed her best women’s prize hat-trick.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will begin on Saturday, August 8, at 12 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. CET.

Standings

(Full final standings here.)

From the moment Saturday’s Bullet Brawl commenced, it became clear that Nakamura was on a mission to secure his 63rd title without allowing any of his competitors a similar window of opportunity he gave to Le a week ago. Following a draw with Xue in his first game, Nakamura defeated 12 titled players in a row and catapulted himself into the lead.

During this streak, Nakamura racked up three brilliant moves and remarkably, all three used similar tactics to take advantage of his opponent’s weak back ranks. Against Turkish CM Mert Can Sevig, Nakamura saved the game after his opponent entrenched a passed pawn on a2. See if you can solve the three one-move puzzles below.

In the very next game, Nakamura found another shrewd sacrifice against WIM Irina Mikhaylova.

Finally, Nakamura dispatched Pranesh, one of the top seeds in the event, off the back of a mass liquidation tactic that forced the game into a winning king and pawn ending.

Nakamura eventually came unstuck in another clash with Sevig, but his devastating run in the first quarter had already amplified his status as the favorite. In spite of this, Le loomed once again, having posted a nine game streak of his own to keep himself in contention.

When the pair came face to face for the first time it was Nakamura who came out of the Catalan Opening: Closed, Traditional Variation up by a pawn due to navigating the central tension better. The American then made consolidation look easy and Le eventually resigned on move 35.

Although last week’s hero would go on to score 6/12 against Nakamura, this wasn’t enough to curb his streak-hungry rival. Other contenders, such as GMs Xue, Pranesh, Oleksandr Bortnyk, and IMs Yoseph Taher, Sergey Sklokin, Renato Terry, and Reza Mahdavi also prevented Le from building streaks and hawking down the leader.

In the second half, relentless ruthlessness helped Nakamura extend his lead to 21 points. FM Ivan Vihor was one victim who felt the fury of a galvanized Nakamura.

Despite having the arena wrapped up with five minutes to go, Nakamura remained critical of his own play. Against Terry, Nakamura stated the following on Twitch: “That does nothing, what am I doing”?, before mounting a stunning comeback and winning the game.

With this victory, Nakamura is one victory away from having as many wins as there are squares on a chess board. It is nigh impossible to imagine his feats in the Bullet Brawl arena being surpassed in the near or distant future.

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