Bullet Brawl‘s all-time title chief GM Hikaru Nakamura outpaced 156 titled gamers in Saturday’s occasion moments after asserting that he and his spouse, WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan, expect their first baby.
Whereas streaming dwell on Kick, Nakamura notched his tenth victory of 2025 and forty fourth since early 2023 after scoring 53/69 for a grand whole of 169 factors, incomes himself the $400 first prize.
GMs Gurel Ediz, Daniel Naroditsky, and Andrew Tang rounded out the highest 4 and received $250, $150, and $100, respectively for his or her efforts, whereas FM Anastasia Avramidou‘s twenty fifth positioned end earned her the $100 finest ladies’s prize.
The subsequent version of Bullet Brawl will begin on Saturday, July 19, at midday ET/17:00 CEST.
Standings
| Quantity | Fed | Title | Username | Title | Ranking | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3343 | 169 | |
| 2 | GM | gurelediz | Ediz Gurel | 3300 | 157 | |
| 3 | GM | DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3218 | 156 | |
| 4 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3194 | 148 | |
| 5 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3221 | 147 | |
| 6 | GM | Indianlad | S.L. Narayanan | 3058 | 131 | |
| 7 | GM | HVillagra | Cristobal Henriquez | 3124 | 131 | |
| 8 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3099 | 130 | |
| 9 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3132 | 129 | |
| 10 | IM | FaustinoOro | Faustino Oro | 3104 | 125 | |
| 11 | GM | Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3104 | 123 | |
| 12 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3006 | 119 | |
| 13 | GM | hansen | Eric Hansen | 2988 | 115 | |
| 14 | FM | L1m96 | Evgenij Lesovoi | 2898 | 111 | |
| 15 | FM | Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 2853 | 107 | |
| 16 | IM | johnathan113 | Johnathan Bakalchuk | 2870 | 105 | |
| 17 | IM | Akewjon | Saidakbar Saydaliev | 2772 | 103 | |
| 18 | IM | MonsterChess_uz | Mukhammadali Abdurakhmonov | 2870 | 102 | |
| 19 | IM | Sven_Tica | Sven Tica | 2758 | 100 | |
| 20 | IM | blitzking1729 | Srihari L R | 2878 | 99 | |
(Full ultimate standings right here.)
No extra surprises from @GMHikaru as we speak as he claimed his forty fourth(!!!) #BulletBrawl title 😭 pic.twitter.com/NNy1cPZ1b3
— Chess.com (@chesscom) July 12, 2025
Saturday’s Bullet Brawl was spearheaded by a number of 2600+ rated GMs, together with Nakamura, Gurel, Naroditsky, Tang, Oleksandr Bortnyk, Matthias Bluebaum, and Eric Hansen. 5 of those seven gamers had beforehand received Bullet Brawls, and their mixed wins whole 98/113, or 86.7% (rounded).
All-Time Leaderboard
| Participant | All-Time Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 44 | 10 | 19 | 15 |
| Daniel Naroditsky | 28 | 4 | 14 | 10 |
| Oleksandr Bortnyk | 12 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| Andrew Tang | 11 | 7 | 4 | 0 |
| Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Ediz Gurel | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Sam Sevian | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Yagiz Erdogmus | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Alireza Firouzja | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Nihal Sarin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Reza Mahdavi | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Tuan Minh Le | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Yoseph Taher | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
An electrical 13.5/14 begin by Nakamura set the tone for the two-hour enviornment, and the one participant capable of steal a half-point from him throughout this era was the Turkish prodigy Gurel, who boasts a 3300 Chess.com bullet ranking.
Nakamura placed on a calculation clinic within the early levels of the occasion—Georgian streamer and WFM Lile Koridze was one of many gamers who discovered herself on the receiving finish of certainly one of Nakamura’s razor-sharp kingside sacrifices.
Nakamura’s chief challenger on Saturday was Gurel, who introduced himself as a contender after defeating a string of the match’s finest gamers, together with Naroditsky, Bortnyk, Bluebaum, and Nakamura himself.
The sport between Gurel and Nakamura got here to a head when the latter performed the doubtful 20…Qxd4??, lacking a tactic-laden riposte.
This sport would hardly be the final between the pair, nevertheless. By the top of the world, and off the again of a trio of wins for Nakamura, the rating stood at 7-5 in favor of the American. The ultimate three video games, certainly one of which included a slick king hunt, have been what helped Nakamura pull forward by 12 factors.
The battle for third place got here all the way down to a single transfer between Gurel and Naroditsky regardless of Naroditsky enjoying 11 extra video games than Gurel throughout the enviornment. See for those who can spot the crushing sacrifice that Gurel discovered to safe the $250 second prize beneath.
Though Nakamura has had a quiet yr when it comes to over-the-board occasions, he stays centered on his purpose to qualify for the 2026 Candidates Match. Not too long ago, whereas talking about claiming the average-rating spot, he acknowledged:
“I shall be enjoying some tournaments, possible in September, perhaps in August… in all probability not August, however possible September and October I will be enjoying some ‘Mickey Mouse’ tournaments, attempt to beat some IMs, and attempt to get my ranking up slightly bit.”
Time will inform whether or not Nakamura will obtain his longtime purpose of turning into the FIDE World Chess Champion.
Tips on how to evaluate video games?
The video games from this week’s Bullet Brawl will be discovered right here.
Bullet Brawl is an thrilling enviornment that includes Chess.com’s high bullet specialists. It takes place weekly on Saturdays. The format is a two-hour enviornment with a 1+0 time management; the prize fund is $1,000. Like Titled Tuesday and Enviornment Kings, Bullet Brawl typically options high GMs, together with Hikaru Nakamura, Daniel Naroditsky, Andrew Tang, Tuan Minh Le, and lots of extra!
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