Nakamura Shatters Bullet Brawl Record With 82.5/84 Score
Bullet Brawl records fell on Saturday after Chess.com's highest-rated bullet and blitz chess player, GM Hikaru Nakamura, swept through the field and amassed a score of 320. With 82 wins, one draw, and one loss to his name, only Peru's IM Renato Terry could prevent the streaming giant from posting an undefeated run.
GMs Oleksandr Bortnyk and Jose Martinez finished second and third respectively, both achieving scores that on a normal week would have been enough to bag them the $400 first prize.
The winner of the top female prize was IM Polina Shuvalova, who scored a 12-move win in the dying seconds to leapfrog IM Karina Ambartsumova, while Sundram Kumar continued his dominance of the community event.
The next edition of Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, February 17, 2024, at 12 p.m. ET/18:00 CEST.
Standings
| Rank | Fed | Title | Name | Username | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura | Hikaru | 3333 | 320 | |
| 2 | GM | Oleksandr Bortnyk | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | 3221 | 275 | |
| 3 | GM | Jose Martinez | Jospem | 3215 | 263 | |
| 4 | GM | Daniel Naroditsky | DanielNaroditsky | 3280 | 195 | |
| 5 | GM | Emin Ohanyan | OhanyanEminChess | 3000 | 181 | |
| 6 | GM | Leon Livaic | Elsa167 | 2944 | 168 | |
| 7 | IM | Yoseph Taher | yosephtaher | 3026 | 167 | |
| 8 | IM | Ediz Gurel | gurelediz | 3025 | 137 | |
| 9 | GM | Alan Pichot | platy3 | 3002 | 132 | |
| 10 | FM | Tanitoluwa Adewumi | TanitoluwaAps116 | 2918 | 131 | |
| 11 | GM | Tuan Minh Le | wonderfultime | 3064 | 128 | |
| 12 | GM | Vasif Durarbayli | Durarbayli | 2914 | 116 | |
| 13 | GM | Falko Bindrich | Janosik | 2870 | 115 | |
| 14 | FM | Yinn Long Wong | bangchess21 | 2781 | 112 | |
| 15 | CM | Eqor Baskakov | stollenmonster | 2911 | 112 | |
| 16 | IM | Renato Terry | MITerryble | 3075 | 111 | |
| 17 | FM | Satbek Akmedinov | nekotyanof | 2765 | 104 | |
| 18 | IM | Almas Rakmatullaev | AlmasRakmatullaev | 2798 | 103 | |
| 19 | IM | Marco Lianes | ulises2013 | 2848 | 102 | |
| 20 | FM | Patryk Cieslak | carokannlover213 | 2759 | 101 |
(Full final standings here)
THE GREATEST BULLET PERFORMANCE EVER?!@GMHikaru just went 82.5/84 to win #BulletBrawl with a new points record 🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/0lx7NpnGWG
— Chess.com (@chesscom) February 10, 2024
Nakamura has broken many online rating records over the last 12 months; however, his latest performance in Bullet Brawl may trump them all. Playing in an arena stacked with 147 titled players—including GMs Daniel Naroditsky, Bortnyk, and Parham Maghsoodloo—Nakamura proved to be virtually invincible and skipped out to a 37-game win streak to start the event.
The five-time U.S. champion, who streamed the arena on Twitch, even seemed to surprise himself with his performance, stating: "Man, I am really just crushing everyone today. This is pretty brutal actually" after dispatching the 3000-rated GM Alan Pichot in 40 seconds.
While Nakamura came up shy of the most-win record (the American had scored 83 wins in August 2023), he still managed to smash the previous score record of 313, courtesy of miniatures against some of the site's best players.
Days after being the first player to surpass the 3400-rating barrier in blitz, Nakamura played in a self-proclaimed "flow state," his games a perfect mix of tactics, successful time scrambles, and boa-constrictor-style positional squeezes.
The closest Nakamura came to losing was against world number-29 Maghsoodloo, who was unable to flag the eventual winner after a calculation oversight.
Shuvalova, the 23rd highest-rated female player in the world, was also impressive en route to securing the $100 best female prize, executing a clutch 12-move finish against Polish IM Jonasz Baum.
When Nakamura scored 313 in 2023, pundits felt that this record would be unlikely to fall; nevertheless, Nakamura has proven that going undefeated in a two-hour titled bullet arena is within the realm of possibility. Breaking the new record will take a Herculean effort, but if anyone is capable of procuring such a score, the king of Bullet Brawl is the best bet.
How to review games?
The games from February's second Bullet Brawl can be found here.
Bullet Brawl is an exciting new 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!
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