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Las Vegas, NV
Magnus Carlsen’s bad run of form against Indian chess players doesn’t seem to end as he faced a defeat against Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa at the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Las Vegas. The 19-year-old shocked the entire world, defeating the Norwegian Grandmaster and the five-time world champion in just 39 moves, forcing him to resign.
R Praggnanandhaa defeated Carlsen in the fourth round of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Las Vegas. With this win, Praggnanandhaa has now won over Carlsen in all three formats of the game – Classical, Rapid, and Blitz. The Indian Grandmaster has already won three tournaments this year and with this he now has 4.5 points and holds a joint lead in the eight player Group White.
After the defeat at the hands of the Indian prodigy, Carlsen finished on a joint fourth position in his group. He was then eliminated in the playoffs by Levon Aronian which led to him falling in the lower brackets in the tournament. As Carlsen is now in the lower bracket, he can finish at no position higher than the third.
Whereas in the same group, Praggnanandhaa, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Javokhir Sindarov all secured 4.5 points out of 7 each to hold the top spot of the table together. Levon Aronian defeated Carlsen twice and edged him out, earning 4 points and qualifying further.
Freestyle Chess is all set for its debut in the United States of America at the Wynn Las Vegas. There are 16 players who move to the knockout stage of the tournament taking them one step closer to the prize money of $200,000. Half of the total players left will have to fight from below, these players also include the likes of Carlsen and Vincent Keymer.
