Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, Las Vegas 2025: Arjun Erigaisi enters semifinals; Caruana beats Praggnanandhaa in epic clash


India’s Arjun Erigaisi entered the semifinal of the Freestyle Chess Las Vegas Grand Slam on Friday, with a convincing win over Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

Erigaisi’s compatriot R Praggnanandhaa though suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the quarterfinal to USA’s Fabiano Caruana.

Praggnanandhaa and Caruana played out a marathon clash, with the two trading wins in the classical, rapid and blitz formats. This forced the first Armageddon game of the tournament, where the American finally clinched a dramatic win with black pieces.

Fabiano Caruana outbids Praggnanandhaa for the black pieces in the Armageddon game.

Fabiano Caruana outbids Praggnanandhaa for the black pieces in the Armageddon game.
| Photo Credit:
Lennart Ootes/Freestyle Chess.

lightbox-info

Fabiano Caruana outbids Praggnanandhaa for the black pieces in the Armageddon game.
| Photo Credit:
Lennart Ootes/Freestyle Chess.

In contrast, Erigaisi’s win was straightforward. The Indian GM drew the first game against Abdusattorov before stitching up a comfortable win in the second with white pieces to secure his progression.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW – Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, Las Vegas 2025

In the semifinal, Erigaisi will take on Levon Aronian, who trumped Hikaru Nakamura in tiebreaks.

In the lower bracket, Magnus Carlsen trounced India’s Vidit Gujrathi to move to the Intermediate Matches Stage 1, where he will face Praggnanandhaa.



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *