Nakamura Wins Bullet Brawl By 96-Point Margin

GM Hikaru Nakamura posted a 303 score to win his 30th Bullet Brawl title on Saturday and secure the $400 first prize. With 80 wins, three draws, and three losses to his name, his winning margin of 96 points over second-placed GM Oleksandr Bortnyk was the greatest winning margin in the event's history. GM Andrew Tang ended the arena in third and will receive $150, while GM Tuan Minh Le picked up the $100 fourth-place prize.

FM Anastasia Avramidou and Sundram Kumar were the respective winners of the $100 best women's prize and community events for the second week running.

The next Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, October 26, 2024, at noon ET/18:00 CEST.

Standings

Nakamura's record score of 320 still stands after a dominant performance on Saturday; however, the 96-point margin between him and Bortnyk was 49 points higher than the difference between the two in the record-breaking edition back in February.

138 titled players assembled to contest the 75th edition of Bullet Brawl and aside from the podium-getters, GMs Daniel Naroditsky, Yagiz Erdogmus, Matthias Bluebaum, and Sergei Zhigalko were among the strongest to play in the event.

A 26.5/28 score to kick off the arena put Nakamura in the box seat and by the halfway mark, his win was almost inevitable. The one player who beat him in this period was CM Henning Holinka, who also became the only player to crack his Modern Defense in the entire event. If you're curious to see what it takes to topple a 30-time Bullet Brawl champion and arguably the best bullet chess player in the world, the game below is for you!

81.5/86 was Nakamura's final score in the arena. While streaming live on Twitch, Bortnyk would say the following about the performance: "Hikaru was impressive as always, but wow, this time nobody was even close."

Tactical awareness is one of the abilities that helped Nakamura dominate this weekend's Brawl. See if you can solve a few of the combinations that the world number-three came up with during his winning run.

For avid readers of our Bullet Brawl recaps, you may recognize the moves below from Nakamura-Sargsyan. Nakamura played the same combination against IM Polina Shuvalova back in August.

With 53 wins between them, Nakamura and Naroditsky have won over 70 percent of the Bullet Brawl titles since the tournament's inception. If Bortnyk is added to this group, the win rate rises to 82 percent.

All-Time Leaderboard

*Nakamura's 30th victory will be added shortly.

Bullet Brawl is an exciting titled arena that features Chess.com's top bullet specialists and takes place weekly on Saturdays. The format is a two-hour arena with a 1+0 time control; the prize fund is $1,000.

Much like Titled Tuesday and Arena Kings, Bullet Brawl often features top GMs, including Hikaru Nakamura, Daniel Naroditsky, Andrew Tang, Tuan Minh Le, and many more!

Previous coverage:

• • Announcing Chess.com Community Bullet Brawl Tournaments
  • Introducing Bullet Brawls And New Arena Options