A 10-hour marathon day at the $750,000 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Las Vegas saw GM Levon Aronian follow up his elimination of GM Magnus Carlsen on Wednesday by knocking out GM Hikaru Nakamura 2.5-1.5 on Thursday.
Aronian is joined in the Semifinals by GM Fabiano Caruana, who defeated GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu 4-3 after bouncing back from a loss in the first 30-minute game. His opponent there will be GM Hans Niemann, who also made it through by defeating GM Javokhir Sindarov in blitz tiebreaks after two initial draws. The last semifinalist is GM Arjun Erigaisi, who beat GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov 1.5-0.5, making him the only semifinalist not to need tiebreaks.
In the Lower Bracket, Carlsen effectively beat GM Vidit Gujrathi 2-0, keeping his hopes of a third-place finish alive. He is joined by GMs Vincent Keymer, Wesley So, and Lenier Dominguez, who eliminated their opponents to remain in contention for the $100,000 third prize.
The Semifinals will commence on Friday, July 18, starting at 2 p.m. ET / 20:00 CEST / 11.30 p.m. IST.
Upper Bracket
Lower Bracket
After the round-robin stage on Thursday, where games were played with 10 minutes with 10 seconds of increment, Friday’s action saw a form of slow rapid with games played with 30 minutes in addition to 30 seconds added per move.
Once again, it turned out to be an incredibly dramatic day that lasted more than 10 hours. “I wasn’t playing, but I was watching. If watching was as exhausting as it was, I can’t imagine what playing was like!” IM Levy Rozman, also known as GothamChess, said in his recap.
Aronian 2.5-1.5 Nakamura
It didn’t start well for Aronian in the first game after he had reached a promising position with the white pieces, aggressively reaching for the throat. However, Nakamura effectively punished 20.Rf1? with some excellent moves, in particular 24…Nxc4!
In game two, Nakamura seemed on the verge of booking his ticket to the Semifinals, defending a difficult position against Aronian’s bishop pair, until a fatal blunder on move 113 left his knight trapped.
That means Aronian once again had to go through tiebreaks. It turned out to be quite dramatic, as the five-time U.S. champion missed a draw in a difficult queen endgame.
Nakamura was visibly frustrated after losing his second white game in a row. He also missed an excellent chance to equalize in the second tiebreak game, which meant Aronian had knocked out the two highest-rated players in consecutive days.
Caruana 4-3 Praggnanandhaa
The most dramatic match of the day had to go through seven games to reach a decisive outcome. Caruana actually started with a loss in only 29 moves after misevaluating complications, but then bounced back in a must-win situation.
The match was far from over at this point, as 10+10 games needed to be played. In the first 10+10 game, Praggnanandhaa took the lead with the black pieces, with Caruana equalizing again.
It was now time for a 5+2 blitz tiebreak, and the first game turned out to be a roller-coaster that Chess.com’s Peter Doggers called “the craziest game of the day” in his report for the official site.
It was time for Praggnanandhaa to equalize in a must-win situation, thanks to a nice tactic.
The first Armageddon game of the tournament saw Caruana bid 4:07 against Praggnanandhaa’s 4:27, which meant that the four-time U.S. champion would play with black and draw odds.
Caruana was interviewed by WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni afterwards, calling the Armageddon “crazy.” “It’s amazing. I’ve had a few of these matches, but none quite this long.”
Niemann 4-2 Sindarov
Niemann proved with his performance in the Swiss on Wednesday that he is a serious contender for first place, and he showed it again by knocking out Sindarov.
The first two rapid games were drawn, Niemann won the first tiebreak game, but then Sindarov struck back immediately. In the blitz games, however, the U.S. 21-year-old was cruising, winning both games.
The first win was particularly impressive.
Arjun-Abdusattorov 1.5-0.5
Arjun was the only player who didn’t need tiebreaks to advance. It was a very convincing win by the Indian in the second game, after he won the exchange on move five and never gave Abdusattorov any chances to recover.
Lower Bracket: Carlsen, So Remain In Contention For Third
It’s an unusual situation for Carlsen, who no longer can play to win the tournament, but instead has to “play for the love of the game”, as he called it. He explained Wednesday’s 0-2 loss against Aronian as a “complete collapse” of his nervous system.
“It happens. It feels like it’s been a thing recently. When things are going well, I play really well and then I am not able to change bad trends. When my nervous system starts collapsing, then it’s all quite bad!”
Carlsen was able to defeat Vidit quite convincingly, winning both games. In the first game, he went for 1.f3 and won in 32 moves.
So, the first official Fischer Random World Champion, also remains in contention for third place with a 1.5-0.5 win against GM Sam Sevian.
Dominguez knocked out IM Bibisara Assaubayeva, who expectedly had a tough event. The GM-elect, who was given a surprise wildcard to Las Vegas, was easily able to hold a draw in a marathon 139-move game, but then lost game two.
GM Vincent Keymer, the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Weissenhaus winner, also remains in the tournament after defeating GM Ray Robson 2.5-1.5.
The semifinals will see three Americans and one Indian, with Caruana-Niemann and Aronian-Arjun. The winners in the Lower Bracket face the losers in the Upper Bracket, which means we’ll see Praggnanandhaa-Carlsen, Sindarov-So, Nakamura-Dominguez and Abdusattorov-Keymer.
The losers in the Lower Bracket, Vidit, Assaubayeva, Sevian and Robson, are eliminated and share 13th to 16th place.
Prize Fund
How to Watch
The $750,000 3rd leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam will be played in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 16th – 20th. Participants include GMs Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Arjun Erigaisi, Fabiano Caruana, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. All games are played in Freestyle Chess.
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