Praggnanandhaa stuns Carlsen in Las Vegas, takes joint lead in Freestyle Chess Grand Slam

New Delhi, July 17 (IANS) India’s Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa delivered a sensational victory over world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen at the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Las Vegas. The 19-year-old outplayed the five-time world champion in just 39 moves.

Norwegian Grandmaster Carlsen, who recently faced consecutive defeats at the hands of India’s reigning world champion D Gukesh, suffered another setback as he was beaten by 19-year-old R Praggnanandhaa in Round 4 of the group stage at an ongoing tournament featuring a 10-minute plus 10-second increment time control.

Praggnanandhaa, who has already won three tournaments this year, has now defeated Carlsen in all three formats — Classical, Rapid, and Blitz. The Indian pridigy now lhold a joint lead in the the eight-player Group White, with 4.5 points.

Praggnanandhaa began by playing out a draw against Abdusattorov with Black, followed by a win against Assaubayeva. In Round 3, he defeated Keymer despite holding Black pieces before stunning Carlsen.

However, Carlsen, the winner of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam events in Paris and Karlsruhe and overall tour leader, has been knocked out of title contention in Las Vegas.

After a turbulent day in the round-robin phase, Carlsen finished shared fourth in his group and was eliminated in a playoff by Levon Aronian. He now dropped into the lower bracket, where he can finish no higher than third.

The tournament’s first day, in the ballroom of the Wynn Las Vegas hotel, featured two eight-player round-robins – the White Group and the Black Group – with the top four from each advancing to the top bracket. The bottom four proceed to a placement bracket, fighting for final rankings and prize money, but no longer in contention for the Vegas title.

Carlsen opened with two wins but then hit a wall. Losses to Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Wesley So, along with two draws, left him needing a win in the final round just to force a tiebreak. He beat Bibisara Assaubayeva but then lost both playoff games to Aronian, who clinched the final qualifying spot.

In the same group, Praggnanandhaa, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Javokhir Sindarov secured 4.5/7 each to top the table. Aronian followed with 4 points, edging out Carlsen.

In the Black Group, Hikaru Nakamura was dominant with 6/7. Hans Niemann, who started strongly with 4.5/5, also advanced alongside Fabiano Caruana and Arjun Erigaisi. Caruana had drawn his first six games before beating Niemann in a must-win final round.

With the U.S. debut of Freestyle Chess underway at the Wynn Las Vegas, 16 players now move on to the knockout stage. Half of them – including Carlsen and Keymer – will have to fight from below. The rest are one step closer to the USD 200,000 first prize.

On Thursday wee will see the quarterfinals, after which the losing players in the upper bracket will be moving into the lower bracket. The winners will continue fighting for the USD 200,000 first prize.

--IANS

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