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Praggnanandhaa beats Magnus Carlsen in Las Vegas Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour to knock world No. 1 out of title contention

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Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa stunned world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen at the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Las Vegas. The 19-year-old defeated the Norwegian in 39 moves in their Round 4 match.

The game was played in a 10-minute plus 10-second increment time control format. It saw the Indian teenager extend his great record against Carlsen.

He had earlier beaten the former world champion in Classical, Rapid, and Blitz formats before, this latest win makes it a sweep across all formats for Praggnanandhaa.

Carlsen had previously won the Grand Slam events in Paris and Karlsruhe and leads the overall tour standings. However, he has now been knocked out of title contention in Las Vegas as he finished tied fourth in Group White and lost a playoff against Levon Aronian, which dropped him into the lower bracket. The best he can now finish is third.

Meanwhile, The Indian Grandmaster holds the joint league in Group White with 4.5 points, alongside Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Javokhir Sindarov.

His performances include a draw with Abdusattorov, wins over Bibisara Assaubayeva and Vincent Keymer, and the big upset over Carlsen.

Carlsen began the day with two wins but had downward performance after that. He lost against Praggnanandhaa and Wesley So, and then played out two draws. Though he managed to beat Assaubayeva, he was outplayed in both playoff games by Aronian.

In the Black Group, Hikaru Nakamura continued a fine run, scoring 6 out of 7 points. Hans Niemann also advanced with Fabiano Caruana and Arjun Erigaisi. Caruana, who had drawn his first six games, pulled off a win against Niemann in the final round to qualify.

The round-robin stage has now been complete. The the top four players from each group now move into the upper knockout bracket.

The quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday, with losing players in the upper bracket moving into the lower bracket. The eventual champion will walk away with the $200,000 first prize.
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