Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Longest Streak |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3365 | 171 | 13 | |
| 2 | GM | GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 3275 | 155 | 8 | |
| 3 | GM | Philippians46 | Andy Woodward | 3248 | 149 | 7 | |
| 4 | GM | legendisback1 | Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus | 3249 | 143 | 11 | |
| 5 | IM | FaustinoOro | Faustino Oro | 3189 | 127 | 7 | |
| 6 | GM | Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3174 | 122 | 5 | |
| 7 | IM | Mykola-Bortnyk | Mykola Bortnyk | 3073 | 120 | 7 | |
| 8 | GM | gurelediz | Ediz Gürel | 3294 | 119 | 8 | |
| 9 | GM | hansen | Eric Hansen | 3105 | 117 | 8 | |
| 10 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3169 | 117 | 5 | |
| 11 | GM | Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3235 | 116 | 7 | |
| 12 | GM | Bardiya06 | Bardiya Daneshvar | 3093 | 115 | 6 | |
| 13 | IM | rezamahdavi2008 | Reza Mahdavi | 3176 | 113 | 13 | |
| 14 | FM | ShadowKing71 | James Chirilov | 3116 | 113 | 4 | |
| 15 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3154 | 112 | 8 | |
| 16 | IM | M4444710 | Manuel Enrique Campos Gómez | 2926 | 105 | 6 | |
| 17 | IM | aa175 | Anthony Atanasov | 3073 | 103 | 11 | |
| 18 | IM | chess_master_8820 | Radin Yadegar | 3103 | 103 | 5 | |
| 19 | IM | kingnb | Nitish Belurkar | 2960 | 102 | 6 | |
| 20 | IM | IlanSchnaider | Ilan Schnaider | 2967 | 101 | 6 |
(Full final standings here.)
Seven days ago one of the U.S.’ rising stars, the 16-year-old hyperbullet prodigy Woodward, claimed his maiden Bullet Brawl title, joining Turkish GMs Ediz Gurel and Erdogmus as the only teenagers on the all-time leaderboard. On Saturday, the second-fourth place-getters were aged 16, 14, and 12 respectively, further highlighting the virtuosity of the new generation.
While it’s clear that a changing of the guard is underway at the top flight of speed chess, one player continues to prove he is far from being dethroned. With seven victories from seven appearances in 2026 and 56 titles to his name overall, Nakamura is the deserved favorite every time he plays Bullet Brawl.
The American kicked off the event in style, winning 10/11 of his first games with his only loss coming due to abandonment three moves into his second game. In a showdown with fellow 2026 candidate GM Matthias Bluebaum, Nakamura squeezed a win out of an equal knight and pawn ending to keep momentum rolling.
Woodward was the main player keeping pace with Nakamura in the first half of the event thanks to his usual strategy of prioritizing speed over streaks. In the first duel between the pair, the game was over in a mere 38 seconds with only 19 moves having been played.
In spite of this, lengthy streaks by Nakamura trumped Woodward’s pace exhibition. An extraordinary 13-game spell featuring wins over GMs Bluebaum (twice), Haowen Xue, Tuan Minh Le, Woodward (twice), and Erdogmus punched a path to the top.
With 20 minutes to go, three players: Nakamura, Arjun, and Erdogmus were realistic chances of taking home the top prize, but the former stamped his authority on the arena by scoring 3/3 against Arjun in their last three games, as well as 2.5/3 against Erdogmus.Â
The second game against Arjun was arguably the most instructive of these—the game transposed into a King’s Indian Defense with resemblance to what many consider Nakamura’s magnum opus, his 2010 brilliancy against GM Boris Gelfand, and ended with the same result, albeit with less drama.
In the end, Nakamura won by a healthy 16-point margin and continues his unbeaten run in 2026.
All-Time Leaderboard
| Player | All-Time Wins | 2026 Wins | 2025 Wins | 2024 Wins | 2023 Wins |
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | 56 | 7 | 15 | 19 | 15 |
| GM Daniel Naroditsky | 32 | 0 | 8 | 14 | 10 |
| GM Oleksandr Bortnyk | 16 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 3 |
| GM Andrew Tang | 15 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| GM Ediz Gurel | 9 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 0 |
| GM Jose Martinez | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| GM Arjun Erigaisi | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 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!
Previous coverage:
