History was made in the Bullet Brawl arena on Saturday as GM Hikaru Nakamura acquired his fifth straight title, eclipsing a record set and shared by the late GM Daniel Naroditsky and himself back in 2023.

Nakamura made his biggest move in the second half of the arena, winning seven games on the fly and finished with a score of 163 points. GM Arjun Erigaisi trailed in second with 155, while GMs Ediz Gurel and Tuan Minh Le filled out the top four.

FM Anastasia Avramidou scored a round 100-points to secure the $100 best women's prize.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will begin on Saturday, October 17, at 12 p.m. ET / 18:00 CEST / 9:30 p.m. IST.

Standings

(Full final standings here.)

The Nakamura train kept on rolling in October 10's Bullet Brawl despite resistance being thrown up by the likes of GMs Arjun, Gurel, Le, Oleksandr Bortnyk, and Parham Maghsoodloo. 

181 other titled players also participated, vying for their chance to become the 20th player to win a brawl. However, with Nakamura in the field, most would have felt that second place was a more realistic target.

There was no clear frontrunner after the first hour, with five players instead breaking away from the pack. Just three points separated Maghsoodloo in first from Le in fifth, with Nakamura sandwiched between them. The stage was set for a thrilling second half.

Although Maghsoodloo spent time in first, he was just as capable as anyone to falling victim to  devastating attacks, as Gurel demonstrated in the following game.

Maghsoodloo unleashed a brilliant rook sacrifice of his own against Nakamura, which resulted in him winning the American's queen.

True to his modus operandi, Nakamura changed gears in the second half and began to take control. A 12-game unbeaten streak catapulted him into first place, and the perfect opportunity to avenge his loss to Maghsoodloo materialized. 

One of Nakamura's finest games was his clash with GM Haowen Xue. Neither player put a foot wrong until Xue's 27...Ne7?. Although it wasn't the most obvious mistake, Nakamura sensed blood in the water and capitalized with surgical precision.

This patch of play cemented Nakamura's 70th Bullet Brawl title, though the drama was far from over. A race was still unfolding for the remaining podium spots.

With 15 minutes left on the arena clock, Arjun strung together an eight game winning streak, averaging 29 moves per win. His 23-move takedown of Bortnyk was as instructive as it was crucial to the standings...

And so, Arjun went from a podium contender to second place by a comfortable, 14-point margin, and left Gurel, Le, Bortyk, and IM Renato Terry to squabble over the two other prize positions.

All-Time Leaderboard

Prizes: Nakamura $400, Arjun $250, Gurel $150, Le $100, Avramidou $100.

How to review games?
The games from this week's Bullet Brawl can be found here.