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The Indian teenager, playing with white pieces on the day, picked up the win over the American Caruana in Game 1 of the upper-bracket qualifiers.
R Praggnanandhaa. (PTI Photo)
Indian GM R Praggnanandhaa continued his purple patch at the ongoing Las Vegas Freestyle Grand Slam Tour with his win over Fabiano Caruana in the first round of the upper-bracket qualifiers on Friday.
The Indian teenager, playing with white pieces on the day, picked up the win over the American Caruana in Game 1 of the clash between the players in the upper-bracket.
Praggnanandhaa is in scintillating form at the Las Vegas Freestyle-Chess.In Game 1 of the Upper bracket Quarterfinals, Pragg scores a strong win over Fabiano Caruana with the White pieces! Catch the final moments. pic.twitter.com/62tKiJP5Tf
— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) July 17, 2025
Indian players Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi secured their positions in the top bracket. Praggnanandhaa surprised Norwegian World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen to finish joint-top of the table with 4.5 points, while Erigaisi ended joint third with 4 points.
The Freestyle In LA
The 16 participants are divided into two groups of eight. The top four from each group advance to the quarterfinals after playing once against each of the other contestants. According to the rules, those who do not make the top bracket in the initial qualifiers cannot win the event.
Praggnanandhaa tied for first place in his group with 4.5 points out of a possible seven, along with Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Javokhir Sindarov, and Levon Aronian, who finished with four points. Carlsen ended fifth, ahead of Vincent Keymer of Germany, Wesley So, and the sole female participant Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan.
In the second group, Hikaru Nakamura topped the standings with an impressive 6/7, while compatriot Hans Niemann finished second with 4.5 points. Erigaisi tied for third place with four points, alongside Fabiano Caruana.
Americans Leinier Dominguez Perez, Samuel Sevian, and Ray Robson finished 5th to 7th, with Indian Vidit Gujrathi ending in the last spot.
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Year Of Pragg
Pragg has enjoyed a good campaign this season, clinching three titles already, at Tata Steel Chess Tournament and the Grand Chess Tour Superbet Classic in Romania and the UzChess Cup, which helped him climb to a career-best ranking of fourth in the world as he leapfrogged World Champion D Gukesh and compartior Arjun Erigaisi.
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