Nakamura Wins Bullet Brawl Again, This Time by 25 Points

GM Hikaru Nakamura won Bullet Brawl for the third consecutive week on September 26, finishing with 172 points, 25 clear of the field. It was his 68th Bullet Brawl title and his 19th of 2026.

GM Tuan Minh Le took second place with 147 points, three ahead of GM Oleksandr Bortnyk in third. FM Anastasia Avramidou took the top women’s prize with 102 points.

The margin is the headline, but the route to it is the better story. Nakamura lost his very first game of the event, to GM Sina Movahed, and for a moment first place looked open. He then went undefeated across his next 28 games, winning 24 and drawing four, including a 12-game winning streak that was the longest of anyone in the field. He finished on 54/70.

That recovery says something about the format. In an arena, volume matters as much as quality, and Chess.com notes that Nakamura typically plays more games than his rivals because he wins so many of them quickly; in one win over IM Reza Mahdavi he spent just 10 seconds on his clock.

Bullet is also where his speed and premove habits are most visible, which is why one early loss barely dents him. He simply plays more games than anyone around him and makes the points back.

For context, The Chess Herald recently looked at Nakamura’s 66th Bullet Brawl win. That victory, on September 12, was the first of this three-week run.

Three in a row also means the rest of the field has had three separate chances to close the gap and hasn’t. Le’s 147 was the best anyone managed this week, and it still left him 25 points short.

Bullet Brawl returns on Saturday, October 3, at 12 p.m. ET. A fourth straight title would extend the run, and the question for the challengers is whether anyone can get within 25 points before then.