Like clockwork, GM Hikaru Nakamura won his seventh consecutive Bullet Brawl on Saturday, this time scoring 178 points and finishing ahead of 218 titled players. A 23-game winning streak in the early stages of the arena effectively assured a Nakamura victory. 

GM Oleksandr Bortnyk finished second with 146 points, edging IM Yoseph Taher by a single point, while IM Aleksandr Usov rounded out the top four with 134 points. Meanwhile, WIM Melika Mohammadi claimed the $100 best women's prize on tiebreaks.

The next edition of Bullet Brawl will begin on Saturday, October 31, at 12 p.m. ET / 18:00 CEST / 9:30 p.m. IST.

Standings

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura's dominance in Bullet Brawl has become almost routine, but the world number-two appears to have found yet another gear. While his rivals continue to battle for the remaining podium places, the American has been making it increasingly difficult for anyone to keep pace with him over the course of the two-hour arena.

Saturday's charge was spearheaded by an extraordinary 23-game streak, during which Nakamura dispatched nine GMs, six IMs, four FMs, three CMs, and one NM.

Against Ukrainian GM Martyn Kravtsiv, Nakamura weathered a tricky position before simplifying into a winning rook and three pawn vs. rook and two pawn ending, which he converted with textbook precision.

The 13-year-old IM Sergey Sklokin, who has previously finished on the podium, became another of Nakamura's victims after the American uncorked 24...Qxd6!!. Nakamura's healthy time advantage meant he could invest the time to find the combination.

Later, in a blockbuster clash with the Argentinian wunderkind and GM Faustino Oro, Nakamura flirted with danger and found clarity in the quagmire to put his opponent to the sword.

Oro was among a trio of grandmasters, alongside Bortnyk and Emin Ohanyan, who eventually brought Nakamura's winning run to an end. The three managed to defeat the American in consecutive games, but by then the damage had been done: Nakamura had built an insurmountable lead.

The 16-year-old Usov's performance was also worthy of recognition. Out of the gate, Usov announced himself as Nakamura's chief challenger with a 17.5/18 start. Unorthodox openings and imbalance were a central theme in Usov's run and in his second game, a queenside counter-attack demonstrated his appetite for attack.

Usov also notched a number of miniatures during his tenure at the top, including a 15-move takedown of FM James Chirilov's Englund Gambit that ended with a piece-winning tactic.

Despite this, Usov never crossed swords with Nakamura and he couldn't sustain the consistency to challenge for the top spot. And so, Chess.com's best bullet chess players have another seven days to go searching for answers as to how to defeat the now, 72-time winner Nakamura. 

All-Time Leaderboard

Prizes: Nakamura $400, Bortnyk, $250, Taher $150, Usov $100, Mohammadi $100

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