Freestyle Chess Grand Slam: Praggnanandhaa Stuns World Number One Magnus Carlsen Again In Las Vegas

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa registered another win over world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam in Las Vegas. This was Praggnanandhaa's second win over Carlsen as he got the better of the Norwegian in the classification game for the quarterfinal.

R Praggnanandhaa Defeated Magnus Carlsen Again

Praggnanandhaa was playing with the white piece and forced Carlsen to resign after 39 moves, as per chess.com. This game happened to be the qualification for the semifinal game.

Pragg took the first game 1-0 and went on to outplay Carlsen. The Norwegian's title hopes were already dashed with a loss against Levon Aronian earlier and Praggnanandhaa too lost to Fabiano Caruana, ending his sensational run.

The Indian GM had defeated Carlsen first in 2022 and followed with another win at Norway Chess in 2024.

Also Read: World Champion D Gukesh & Arjun Erigaisi Headline FIDE Grand Swiss, With Candidates Berth On The Line

R Praggnanandhaa Has Established Himself As One of The Strong Contenders In World Chess

Praggnandha won game 1, but Carlsen mounted a sensational comeback, winning the next two games in a Blitz tiebreak. Carlsen had lost his queen very early in the game and the Indian GM capitalised on the chances and got the better of his counterpart. Another Indian grand master, Arjun Erigaisi didn't mount any challenge to Carlsen and lost 2-0 in the semifinals. Despite Praggnandha's defeat, he has established himself as one of the prominent names in the world chess circuit.

Praggnandha showed consistency in Group A and registered three straight wins from round two to four. With a 10-minute plus 10-second increase in each round, he displayed sheer calmness and managed to register a sensatiopnal win over Carlsen. Praggnandha will now face world No.2 Hikaru Nakamura in a third-place game in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam.

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