Arjun Erigaisi’s dream run at the Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour came to an end after losing to Levon Aronian in the semifinals on Saturday morning. Earlier on Friday, Arjun became the first Indian to reach the semifinal stage of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. He made the last 4 after prevailing over Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
But the American-Armenian Aronian turned out to be too tough for Arjun to handle in the semis. The Indian was handed a straight 0-2 defeat as Aronian advanced to the finals, where he will take on compatriot Hans Niemann, who beat fellow American Fabiano Caruana in the other semifinal.
Aronian, who had already knocked out Freestyle tour leader and World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen and World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura earlier this week, continued his solid run by defeating the Indian after winning both classical games without needing tiebreaks.
L-R: Jan Henric Buettner with Hans Niemann. (Freestyle Chess/Lennart Ootes)
The Niemann vs Caruana match-up ended in a 1.0-1.0 after both Classical games ended in draws. Niemann then survived a scare in the first rapid tiebreaker but broke through in the second with a clinical attack to clinch the match 2.5-1.5.
Pragg, Arjun still in podium hunt
In the Lower Bracket, Carlsen, Nakamura, Wesley So, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu advanced to the semis. Carlsen beat Javokhir Sindarov 1.5-0.5, while Nakamura swept Leinier Dominguez 2-0. So escaped some danger against Abdusattorov, drawing two games before pulling away in rapid play, and Praggnanandhaa ended Vincent Keymer’s tournament 1.5-0.5
The four eliminated players – Keymer, Dominguez, Abdusattorov, and Sindarov – share ninth place while the two semifinal losers from the Upper Bracket, Arjun and Caruana, will join the Lower Bracket semifinals, where four players will fight for a spot on the podium. The four winners will face off tomorrow in 10+10 games. The winners will play the Upper Bracket semifinal losers in the Lower Bracket semifinals, also in 10+10 games.
Vidit Gujrathi, who was eliminated from the top 12 race before, said he is impressed with Aronian’s play. “He’s clearly very inspired,” said Vidit in the broadcast about Aronian. “He defeated Magnus and Hikaru in blitz, right? Especially against Hikaru it is really admirable because Hikaru just needed a draw and he had the white pieces, to clutch from there is just very cool. I am impressed by him.”
