Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa defeated Magnus Carlsen at the Freestyle Grand Slam Chess in Las Vegas last night. Playing with the white pieces, the Indian GM asserted his dominance over his Norwegian opponent, taking an outright lead in his group at the tournament while also qualifying for the quarterfinals. Praggnanandhaa is no stranger to big results and victories over Carlsen. But this time, his win in the Freestyle format came over the founder of the Grand Slam Chess Tour, further strengthening his chances of redeeming himself after a ninth-place finish in the Paris leg.

Despite his defeat to Praggnanandhaa, Carlsen remains the overall leader on the Grand Slam Tour, having won the previous two legs in Karlsruhe and Paris, and finishing third in the opening leg in Weissenhaus, Germany.

However, in Las Vegas, he could only manage a fifth-place finish in the group stage after losing a tiebreaker to Levon Aronian. Back-to-back losses to Pragg and Wesley So in the group stage meant Carlsen couldn’t overcome Aronian in the tiebreaker for fourth place - a massive upset in the expanded 16-player tournament, one which now opens the door wide for a title run by the likes of Pragg.

Praggnanandhaa held the joint lead in the White Group with 4.5 points after 7 rounds, ensuring his safe passage to the quarterfinals. The current format features two groups of eight grandmasters, with the top four from each group qualifying for the championship bracket, and the bottom four moving to the bottom bracket.

Alongside his win over Carlsen, Pragg also registered significant victories over Vincent Keymer and WGM Bibisara Assaubayeva to secure his place in the championship bracket.

Joining Praggnanandhaa in the quarterfinals is Arjun Erigaisi, who advanced from the Black Group by finishing in a strong third place. He qualifies behind Hikaru Nakamura - now considered the favourite for the event - and GM Hans Niemann. Meanwhile, Vidit Gujrathi finished at the bottom of the Black Group.