After Magnus Carlsen, R Praggnanandhaa Registers Big Win Over Fabiano Caruana at Las Vegas Freestyle Chess But Fails to Make Semi-finals

Indian chess grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa has been on quite the roll lately. The youngster became India's top-ranked chess player after beating Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the final of the UzChess Cup Masters 2025. 

And his good showings have continued on during the Las Vegas Freestyle Chess event, where he registered a huge win when he defeated Magnus Carlsen in the group stages. 

Now the boy nicknamed Pragg has beaten another top contender in the tournament as he got the better of Fabio Caruana in the first match of the quarterfinals of the freestyle chess event at Las Vegas. 

Unfortunately, he was unable to make it to the semi-final as he ended up losing in the armageddon tiebreaker. 

ALSO READ | R Praggnanandhaa Shocks Magnus Carlsen in Freestyle Grand Slam Chess

How Pragg Was Outdone By Caruana

The young Indian was playing with the white pieces on the day and, just as he did against Carlsen, showcased his cool and composure to register an excellent win in the first game of the day. 

However, things began to unravel later as they ended up tied on 3-3 following the 6 matches getting completed. 

That meant the match went into tiebreakers, which first featured a round of two Rapid Games and two Blitz games. 

Amazingly, they remained tied even after that and it needed an armageddon tiebreak to determine a winner. 

Unfortunately for Pragg, it was Caruana who wound up coming out on top. The result means Arjun Erigaisi is the only Indian alive in the tournament as he made it to the semis.

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Pragg Defeat Leads to Carlsen's Elimination

Pragg was playing with the white pieces and put in a dominant display to beat the Norwegian, a statement win against the man who is up there in terms of Greatest of All Time i.e. GOAT conversations in the sport of chess.

The loss to Praggnanandhaa also indirectly led to Carlsen being eliminated - he also lost to Wesley So in the group stage and then couldn’t beat Levon Aronian in the tiebreaker for fourth place. 

Now it will be interesting to see if Pragg can continue his stellar run in 2025 despite losing out on the opportunity to win this event at Las Vegas.