Praggnanandhaa Shocks Carlsen in Las Vegas, Takes Joint Lead in Freestyle Chess Grand Slam

New Delhi – India’s Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa stunned the chess world by defeating World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Las Vegas. The 19-year-old prodigy outplayed the five-time world champion in just 39 moves during Round 4 of the group stage.

The format features a rapid time control of 10 minutes plus a 10-second increment, and Carlsen, fresh off recent back-to-back losses to India’s World Champion D Gukesh, suffered yet another blow — this time at the hands of Praggnanandhaa.

With this win, Praggnanandhaa has now beaten Carlsen in all three formats of the game — Classical, Rapid, and Blitz — a rare feat in the chess world. The young Indian now shares the lead in Group White with 4.5 points in the eight-player round-robin.

Praggnanandhaa's campaign began with a draw against Nodirbek Abdusattorov (playing Black), followed by a win over Bibisara Assaubayeva. In Round 3, he defeated Vincent Keymer before delivering the headline-making win over Carlsen in Round 4.

Meanwhile, Carlsen — who had earlier triumphed in the Paris and Karlsruhe legs of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam and was leading the overall tour — was knocked out of title contention in Las Vegas. After finishing tied for fourth in his group, he was eliminated in a tiebreaker by Levon Aronian and dropped into the lower bracket, meaning the best he can now achieve is a third-place finish.

The Las Vegas leg began in the grand ballroom of the Wynn Hotel with two round-robin groups — White and Black — each featuring eight players. The top four from each group advanced to the championship bracket, while the remaining four moved to the placement bracket to compete for final standings and prize money, though no longer for the title.

Carlsen started strong with two victories but faltered afterward, losing to both Praggnanandhaa and Wesley So, and drawing two other games. He needed a win in the final round to force a playoff and succeeded against Assaubayeva, only to lose both tiebreak games to Aronian, who claimed the last qualifying spot.

Group White ended with Praggnanandhaa, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Javokhir Sindarov all scoring 4.5/7. Aronian followed with 4 points, edging out Carlsen.

In Group Black, Hikaru Nakamura dominated with a commanding 6/7 score. Hans Niemann, who had a strong start with 4.5/5, also advanced alongside Fabiano Caruana and India’s Arjun Erigaisi. Notably, Caruana drew his first six games but defeated Niemann in the final round to secure his spot.

With Freestyle Chess making its U.S. debut in Las Vegas, 16 players now move into the knockout phase. Half of them — including Carlsen and Keymer — will fight from the lower bracket. The other half are one step closer to the prestigious $200,000 first prize.

The quarterfinals will be played on Thursday, with winners continuing in the upper bracket and losers dropping to the lower bracket for a second chance at the crown.

With inputs from IANS