Nakamura Clinches Bullet Brawl With 42-Game Winning Streak

GM Hikaru Nakamura is one win away from his 30th Bullet Brawl title after stringing together a 42-game winning streak during Saturday's event and claiming the $400 first prize. Nakamura's 75/78 performance earned him a score of 284, 16 points clear of GMs Andrew Tang and Daniel Naroditsky, who will receive $250 and $150, respectively.

The top-scoring women's player was FM Anastasia Avramidou who carried momentum from her 8/11 Olympiad performance for Greece's women's team, while the community event was won by "Macmasterr."

The next Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, October 5, 2024, at noon ET/18:00 CEST.

Standings

It's a 29th #BulletBrawl win for @GMHikaru who finished on 284 points, the highest score since April 🔥 pic.twitter.com/laT9Zo7YZy

— Chess.com (@chesscom) September 28, 2024

In the wake of an Olympiad dominated by India's teams, American chess fans have been left wondering whether the inclusion of Nakamura would have made the race for gold in the open section a tighter one.

Despite this, Nakamura has made it abundantly clear that streaming and online events take precedence over most over-the-board events. Nakamura's coverage of a chess game between Manny Pacquiao and internet personality IShowSpeed garnered more views than any Olympiad recaps.

200k+ Watched a chess game between @ishowspeedsui VS @MannyPacquiao ...WHAT???? pic.twitter.com/oDW6UNURVg

— Hikaru Nakamura (@GMHikaru) September 16, 2024

With his latest title, Nakamura has won more than 40 percent of Bullet Brawls since the tournament's inception and has continued to assert his dominance over the world's best in the 1+0 time control.

In Saturday's event, Nakamura led from start to finish, courtesy of a 26-game winning streak and the aforementioned 42-game streak later. During the first streak, Nakamura scored dual wins over foes GMs Naroditsky and Tuan Minh Le who would usually cause him problems, but the world number-two was able to capitalize on the few errors that they made.

Nakamura's streak was eventually snapped by the second-place finisher Tang, who tried to include as many legends as possible in his chosen variation against the King's Indian Defense... the Samisch, Bobotsov-Korchnoi-Petrosian Variation. 

The blip was short-lived for Nakamura, though, and he went straight back to his winning ways, converting many of his games in 30 moves or less. Even when the American bluffed, the "Nakamura effect" resulted in his opponents crumbling under pressure.

Popular streamer and inventor of the Caro-Kann Defense: Alien Gambit, CM Volen Dyulgerov (aka "Witty_Alien") was not immune.

While Tang and Naroditsky had to settle for second and third, their scores of 268 would have been good enough to win most other editions of Bullet Brawl this year. For reference, their score eclipsed the winning one set by Naroditsky in the August 10 event by a margin of 26 and shows that winning Bullet Brawl is becoming more difficult every week.

All-Time Leaderboard

*Nakamura's 29th win 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