GM Andrew Tang was denied a record-equaling four-peat in Saturday’s Bullet Brawl by a dominant efficiency by GM Hikaru Nakamura that noticed him seize his thirty eighth title and the $400 first prize. Following a profitable The American Cup marketing campaign, Nakamura scored 68.5/75 and accrued 252 factors, outscoring the five-time world champion GM Magnus Carlsen by 40 factors.
GMs Andy Woodward and Ediz Gurel rounded out the highest 4 with scores of 198 and 190, whereas FM Anastasia Avramidou‘s Twenty fifth-place end was sufficient to win the $100 greatest girls’s prize.
The following version of Bullet Brawl will begin on Saturday, April 5, at midday ET/17:00 CEST.
Standings
| Quantity | Fed | Title | Username | Title | Ranking | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3303 | 252 | |
| 2 | GM | MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3196 | 212 | |
| 3 | GM | gurelediz | Ediz Gurel | 3157 | 198 | |
| 4 | GM | Philippians46 | Andy Woodward | 3219 | 190 | |
| 5 | GM | ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 3123 | 187 | |
| 6 | GM | Nitzan_Steinberg | Nitzan Steinberg | 3044 | 182 | |
| 7 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3150 | 176 | |
| 8 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3101 | 164 | |
| 9 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3053 | 163 | |
| 10 | GM | Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3066 | 150 | |
| 11 | GM | Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2986 | 136 | |
| 12 | IM | super_emi_26 | Nikoloz Petriashvili | 2915 | 126 | |
| 13 | NM | Willixm | William Safranek | 2801 | 123 | |
| 14 | GM | crescentmoon2411 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | 2904 | 118 | |
| 15 | NM | RoseyChess | Nicholas Rosenthal | 2851 | 115 | |
| 16 | GM | DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 2908 | 114 | |
| 17 | FM | EddieMarsalla | Ivan Vihor Krsnik Cohar | 2817 | 110 | |
| 18 | FM | bubeliang | Havard Haug | 2879 | 109 | |
| 19 | FM | luckyswitchback | Daniil Plyasunov | 2820 | 106 | |
| 20 | CM | PchelkinVK | Andrey Ermolaev | 2754 | 105 | |
Chasing his fourth straight win, Tang entered Saturday’s 208-player Bullet Brawl with all of the momentum he wanted to seal the deal; nonetheless, profitable this version can be trickier than traditional—Nakamura and Carlsen each stood in his manner.
Being the file holder for Bullet Brawl victories, Nakamura posed the best menace to Tang’s possibilities, and this was felt within the first sport of the occasion as Nakamura toppled Tang in a 76-move thriller. When checkmate was delivered, each gamers had a mere 0.6 seconds left on the clock, a statistic that turns into extra attention-grabbing when you think about that earlier, Tang spent eight seconds coping with Nakamura’s 19.Ng6!!.
Whereas a first-round loss is mostly inconsequential in Bullet Brawl, subsequent losses to GMs Nikolas Theodorou, Nitzan Steinberg, and the lately topped European champion GM Matthias Bluebaum slashed Tang’s hopes of a four-peat.
All eyes then turned to Carlsen and Nakamura, whose highly effective 15/16 and 13.5/16 begins, respectively, noticed them emerge because the frontrunners. Nakamura’s solely losses throughout this time have been by the hands of the world number-one, although he would later avenge these and end with 3/5 in opposition to his longtime rival. See in case you can spot the tactic Nakamura detected to clinch a optimistic head-to-head rating.
The pivotal second of the sector occurred 1 / 4 of the way in which by means of when Carlsen misplaced three straight video games. The primary and the third have been in opposition to Nakamura, whereas the second was in opposition to one of many heroes of Vietnam’s 2024 FIDE Olympiad staff, GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son.
With Carlsen out of the way in which, Nakamura cruised to victory and prolonged his result in 40 factors, scoring an unassailable 30/32 within the second half of the occasion. In a conflict with 17-year-old Indian IM Aswath S, Nakamura demonstrated why he’s so arduous to beat, clinically changing a chaotic, Fashionable Protection middlegame.
Excluding the 27-time winner GM Daniel Naroditsky, Nakamura holds extra Bullet Brawl crowns than the entire different winners mixed. He additionally maintains an all-time win price of just below 39 %, which even contains Bullet Brawls he didn’t be part of.
A maiden title nonetheless eludes Carlsen; nonetheless, it seems to be a matter of time earlier than the recipient of FIDE’s GOAT award makes his mark on the Bullet Brawl leaderboard.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Participant | All-Time Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 38 | 4 | 19 | 15 |
| Daniel Naroditsky | 27 | 3 | 14 | 10 |
| Oleksandr Bortnyk | 10 | 0 | 7 | 3 |
| Andrew Tang | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
| Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Sam Sevian | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Ediz Gurel | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Nihal Sarin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Alireza Firouzja | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Tuan Minh Le | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Yagiz Erdogmus | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Yoseph Taher | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Find out how to evaluate video games?
The video games from this week’s Bullet Brawl may be discovered right here.
Bullet Brawl is an thrilling titled area that options Chess.com’s high bullet specialists and takes place weekly on Saturdays. The format is a two-hour area with a 1+0 time management; the prize fund is $1,000.
Very like Titled Tuesday and Area Kings, Bullet Brawl usually options high GMs, together with Hikaru Nakamura, Daniel Naroditsky, Andrew Tang, Tuan Minh Le, and lots of extra!
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