GM Hikaru Nakamura extended the most dominant run in Bullet Brawl history on Saturday, cruising to a resounding 46-point victory with a score of 190 points. The American secured his sixth consecutive first-place finish and netted the $400 first prize on the back of consistent play.

GMs Jose Martinez, Faustino Oro, and IM Reza Mahdavi followed, however Nakamura spent more of the tournament focused on reaching a score of 200 points rather than worrying about his pursuers. While Nakamura forged ahead, FM Anastasia Avramidou picked up the best women's prize after a tight race with WIM Melika Mohammadi.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will begin on Saturday, October 24, at 12 p.m. ET / 18:00 CEST / 9:30 p.m. IST.

Standings

(Full final standings here.)

If anyone is qualified to describe Chess.com's briskest titled event as a "marathon", it is Nakamura. The world number-two has won 22/23 of the brawls he has entered in 2026, all the streaming every single edition live on Kick.

Saturday's performance was arguably his most impressive of the year. Nakamura came within touching distance of the coveted 200-point mark despite facing a stacked field featuring six players rated above 3200: Martinez, Oro, Oleksandr Bortnyk, and Tuan Minh Le, as well as IMs Mahdavi and Renato Terry.

Terry was the first to make his mark, opening the arena with a 10-game winning streak fueled by blistering speed and crafty pre-move tricks. Remarkably, only three of those lasted more than 30 moves, including his encounter with Nakamura where the Peruvian IM successfully converted a one-pawn advantage. 

The setback did little to slow Nakamura's momentum. The world number-two kept Terry within striking distance before taking over the lead around the 25-minute mark.

As he climbed the standings, Nakamura openly identified the players he considered his biggest threats to another title-winning performance: "The guy that I'm worried about over two hours, or guys should I say, are Minh Le and Bortnyk. So if Minh Le and Bortnyk aren't the ones up there I'm going to be very happy in general."

As it turned out, neither rival managed to mount a serious challenge. Nakamura scored an impressive 6/7 against both Bortnyk and Le, using his trademark speed to turn the tables in difficult positions and punish even the smallest inaccuracies.

Against Bortnyk, Nakamura repeatedly weaponized the clock to escape inferior positions, capitalizing on blunders such as 38...Rd2?? in their fifth encounter.

Nakamura was equally ruthless against Le. In their first clash, he pounced on 6...Be6? by planting a knight on e6, effectively preventing Black from castling. By move 16, Le had run out of play and promptly resigned.

With his two most dangerous rivals out of the way, Nakamura settled into his rhythm and played some of his best chess of the event. A showdown with Martinez became one of the crown jewels of Nakamura's performance after he offered two thematic knight sacrifices in the Sicilian Defense. Martinez declined both but resigned on the 13th move.

Although Nakamura came up 10 points short of the 200-point mark, his performance was one of the most dominant in Bullet Brawl history. While the American played down his achievement due to the absence of players such as GMs Ediz Gurel and Arjun Erigaisi, a 46-point winning margin is something only the GOAT of Bullet Brawl seems to be capable of achieving.

All-Time Leaderboard

Prizes: Nakamura $400, Martinez $250, Oro $150, Le $100, Mahdavi $100, Avramidou $100.

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