Las Vegas (USA) |World number one Magnus Carlsen found his rhythm back, defeating Arjun Erigaisi 2-0 and R Praggnanandhaa 3-1 in the Freestyle chess Grand Slam, which is drawing to a close here.
With Hans Moke Niemann taking on his American counterpart Levon Aronian in the finals, Carlsen set up a clash with world number two American Hikaru Nakamura for the third place in the USD 750,000 prize money event.
It turned out to be an eventful two matches for Carlsen who was earlier denied the chance to win the event by Praggnanadhaa.
The Indian started off with another victory against the world’s best in the first game of their mini-match. The Norwegian struck back in the return game and won the next set of games to find himself back in the event.
In his next match, Arjun enjoyed some opening advantage in the first game but could not hold it together while in the second Carlsen proved superior again.
In the other matches slated on the final day, Arjun will meet Fabiano Caruana of United States for the fifth-place play-off while Praggnanandhaa will have to fight for the seventh place against another American Wesley So.
By his own admission, Nakamura said he was lucky. Winning 1.5-0.5 against Wesley So, Nakamura defeated Fabiano Caruana 3-1 in a match that saw fortunes fluctuating more than a few times.
On the final day, all eyes will be Niemann who is the lowest ranked player in the last-8 stage and is fighting for the prize purse of USD 200,000 against comeback king Aronian.
Results penultimate day:
Match 1: Magnus Carlsen (Nor) beat R Praggnanandhaa (Ind) 3-1; Hikaru Nakamura (Usa) beat Wesley So (Usa) 1.5-0.5.
Match 2: Arjun Erigaisi (Ind) lost to Carlsen; Nakamura beat Fabiano Caruana (Usa) 3-1.
Line ups for the finale:
Final: Hans Moke Niemann (USA) vs Levon Aronian (USA)
3-4 place: Carlsen vs Nakamura
5-6 place: Arjun vs Caruana
7-8 place: Praggnanandhaa vs Wesley.
