Nakamura Notches 31-Game Streak In Latest Bullet Brawl Victory

With the 2024 Candidates Tournament mere months away, GM Hikaru Nakamura has shown no signs of reducing his online tournament participation, taking January's third Bullet Brawl with a commanding score of 269. Amassing 72 wins in two hours, Nakamura scooped up the $400 first prize ahead of GMs Jose Martinez (217) and Andrew Tang (198) with his victory coming after a 31-game winning streak.

FM Anastasia Avramidou's trophy cabinet also continues to grow as she won the $100 best female prize with a score of 77, while 16-year-old Sundram Kumar topped the 390-strong community event.

January's final Bullet Brawl will take place on Saturday, January 27, 2024, at 12 p.m. ET/18:00 CEST. (Note: Bullet Brawl has been permanently brought forward by one hour).

Standings

(Full final standings here.)

Following a month-long dry spell, Nakamura managed to add a 16th Bullet Brawl title to his name in Saturday's event after sweeping aside his main challengers, including past winners GMs Oleksandr Bortnyk and Martinez, as well as hyper bullet virtuoso Tang.

In addition to the 72 wins on his winning scorecard were two draws and six losses. The prominent American GM's lead was so monumental that he was able to stop playing with more than five minutes left on the arena clock. As Nakamura was streaming live on Kick, viewers wanted to see more and coaxed him into playing again, resulting in his losing to Tang and snapping his 31-game winning streak in the process.

One of Nakamura's finest wins came against his 19-year-old compatriot GM Andrew Hong, where an opportune exchange sacrifice in the Sicilian Defense: Grand Prix Attack left Hong's king exposed.

Though the win over Hong showcases his most spectacular chess, it is his 20-to-30-second miniatures against other titled players that gave him such an immense buffer over his rivals. Just 12 moves are all it took for Nakamura to force former super-GM Anton David Guijarro into submission after trapping his opponent's pieces on the back rank.

While the third-placed Tang was unable to achieve the score required to win the event, his score earned him $150, and he put on a pure exhibition of speed and guile (which was also streamed live on his Twitch channel).

As the youngest 3000+ rated player in the field, IM Ediz Gurel also impressed with a seventh-place finish (175 points), knocking over NM Jesse James with a dark-square drubbing on the white side of a Sicilian Defense: Hyper Accelerated Dragon, Fianchetto Variation.

With the 2024 Candidates Tournament fast approaching, many of the event's younger participants, such as GMs Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh Dommaraju, and Alireza Firouzja have opted to practice in classical tournaments; however, Nakamura seems content with using online events to stay sharp. Only time will tell which method pays off.

Streaming more Tata Steel coverage today as well as Titled Tuesday Early and Late. Will be on kick and twitch today - if you can't find me on one, check the other. Here's this week's schedule. pic.twitter.com/gFBbiZWcbC

— Hikaru Nakamura (@GMHikaru) January 16, 2024

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!

Previous coverage:

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