Freestyle Chess Grand Slam: Erigaisi reaches semifinals

Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi advanced to the semifinals of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, defeating Nodirbek Abdusattorov, while R Praggnanandhaa lost to Fabiano Caruana, eliminating him from the title race

Las Vegas: Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi stormed into the semifinals of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour with a win over Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov. However, R Praggnanandhaa bowed out of the title race after losing to USA’s Fabiano Caruana at the USD 7,50,000 event.

Erigaisi defeated Abdusattorov 1.5-0.5, while Praggnanandhaa lost 3-4 against Caruana.

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In the only match of the Upper Bracket that didn’t go to tiebreaks, Erigaisi advanced to the semifinals by winning the second 30+30 game. He was close to winning in the first game as well, but Abdusattorov showed fantastic defense and managed to hold on.

In the second game, Abdusattorov couldn’t repeat that feat in a position where he was an exchange down, which he had sacrificed early in the opening.

The Praggnanandhaa-Caruana matchup saw an equally dramatic series of two 30+30 games. Praggnanandhaa struck first with an excellent win with the white pieces. Caruana then leveled the score as he dominated his white game from the start, reaching a piece-up endgame. However, Caruana faced stiff opposition from his opponent until Praggnanandhaa suddenly blundered his rook.

The scenario repeated itself, but with reversed colors. Praggnanandhaa won the first 10+10 game as Black, but failed to hold the next one as White. The next part of the tiebreak consisted of two 5+2 blitz games. The first game saw an absolutely wild time scramble, where the evaluation bar went up and down until Caruana emerged victorious. It was the craziest game of the day.

In another must-win situation, Praggnanandhaa delivered. He ended up winning from a worse middlegame position, thus forcing the first Armageddon game of the tournament.

Praggnanandhaa bid 4:27 for playing Black, but was beaten by Caruana’s 4:02, so the latter got to play Black, with draw odds, and more time on the clock. Caruana won the game, showing strong nerves in time trouble.

Meanwhile, Levon Aronian and Hans Moke Niemann of America were the other winners to make it to the Higher Bracket’s semifinals, alongside Caruana and Erigaisi.

In the Lower Bracket, Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, Vincent Keymer, and Leinier Dominguez emerged as the winners on Friday as they eliminated Vidit Gujrathi, Sam Sevian, Ray Robson, and Bibisara Assaubayeva, respectively.

In the Upper Bracket, the pairings for the semifinals are Caruana vs Niemann and Aronian vs Erigaisi.

The losers in the Lower Bracket (Vidit, Sevian, Robson, and Assaubayeva) have been eliminated and share 13th place. The winners (Carlsen, So, Keymer, and Dominguez) move on to the Intermediate Matches Stage 1, where they will face the losers of the Upper Bracket quarterfinals.

The pairings in the Lower Bracket are: Praggnanandhaa vs Carlsen, Sindarov vs So, Nakamura vs Dominguez, and Abdusattorov vs Keymer.