New Delhi: Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa continued his good run and the trend of Indian chess players outplaying Magnus Carlsen as he took down the world number one en route the top-bracket quarterfinals along with another Indian Arjun Erigaisi at the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour in Las Vegas.
Praggnanandhaa ensured that Norwegian Carlsen’s campaign turned haywire with a brilliant effort at the USD 750,000 event. Carlsen has not been in the best of the touch in recent weeks after being beaten by reigning world champions D Gukesh, who is not a part of the event. The 19-year-old Indian chess player was in his best elements in the game as he placed his pieces effectively from the beginning.
Carlsen eliminated after multiple losses
Even though Carlsen got some chances, Praggnanandhaa made some intelligent moves to deceive his opponent continuously. The defeat against Praggnanandhaa had a bad effect on Carlsen that he lost another match against Wesley So in the next round and win a shocker, was eliminated from the top bracket by Levon Aronian of United States 2-0 in the final tiebreaker for the fourth spot that ensued.
The event, which features 16 players, has been divided into two groups of eight each and the top four from each pool advanced to the quarterfinals after playing once with each of the other participant. Erigaisi, meanwhile, was the other Indian player from the second group who made it into the quarterfinals after a fine comeback post some initial struggles.
Meanwhile, Praggnanandhaa tied for the first spot on 4.5 points out of a possible seven in his group with Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Javokhir Sandarov, along with Aronian, finishing on four points. Carlsen ended fifth ahead of Vincent Keymer of Germany, Wesley So and lone woman participant Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan.
(With PTI inputs)