Another tournament in 2025, another defeat at the hands of an Indian for Magnus Carlsen. After losing twice to world champion D Gukesh in the classical format at Norway Chess and then in the rapid format at the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia tournament earlier this month, the World No 1 was handed a defeat by R Praggnanandhaa in the Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour on Thursday.
In a group-stage clash to determine the eight players who will fight for the title in the ‘Upper Bracket’, Carlsen was on a roll at the start of the event, winning his first two games and playing out a draw. Then, he ran into Praggnanandhaa in his fourth game, which resulted in a defeat in 39 moves.
That started a series of results for Carlsen that saw him end in fifth place in the eight-player group (called Group White, with the other eight players in Group Black) which means that Carlsen cannot play for the title anymore at the Las Vegas tournament. At best, he can now finish third.
Praggnanandhaa was ahead on the eval bar from the 10th move itself when he hastily pushed his pawn ahead (10…b5?!). The Norwegian compounded his problems by jumping Praggnanandhaa’s knight with his c file pawn (11…cxd4?!). Pragg’s second knight calmly hopped away from danger, but found a square (12.Nf5) which made it as lethal as a sniper. In a game where players had 10 minutes on the clock at the start, Carlsen had just 3.24 minutes at this stage. But he spent 3.10 minutes trying to extricate himself out of trouble without activating his queen.
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When Carlsen did find a move, he was down to just 15 seconds on the clock having started with 30 additional seconds than his opponent when he started thinking. It was a particularly lethal square from where Praggnanandhaa could have hopped a knight to d6 and put Carlsen’s king and queen in a fork.
It was the beginning of the end for Carlsen. Soon, both queens were off the board and Pragg was two pawns up with Carlsen’s king running for cover. There was none to be found.
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The Indian’s rooks moved around on the board, gobbling up Carlsen’s pieces like a giant vacuum cleaner swallowing Lego pieces, keeping the Norwegian’s king on its toes.
The win over Carlsen was one of the highlights of Praggnanandhaa’s day as he topped Group White. The Norwegian ended fifth after losing twice in tie-breaks to Levon Aronian later on. In Group Black, Arjun Erigaisi ended fourth, which means he can contend for the title as part of the Upper Bracket. The third Indian in fray at the event, Vidit Gujrathi, finished at the bottom of Group Black.
Thanks to topping the group, Praggnanandhaa was offered the opportunity to select his opponent in the quarters. Rather than picking Arjun, one of his closest friends on the tour, he opted to duel with Fabiano Caruana. This means Arjun will face Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Vidit, meanwhile, finds himself taking on a wounded Carlsen.
