Teenage Indian Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa continued his strong performances in 2025, showing off his adaptability and flexibility across formats as he registered a landmark win over world number one Magnus Carlsen during the Freestyle Grand Slam chess event in Las Vegas last night. Playing with the white pieces, Pragg dominated his senior opponent with a strong display to take an outright lead in his group at the tournament, enroute to qualifying for the quarterfinals.

Although he is not a stranger to big results and victories over Carlsen, Pragg’s statement Freestyle win comes over the founder of the Grand Slam Chess Tour, which signals his clear intentions to bounce back after a disappointing ninth place finish during an earlier leg in Paris.

With his third-place finish in the first leg in Weissenhaus, Germany, and his victories in the following two legs in Karlsruhe and Paris, Carlsen is already in the lead in the Grand Slam Tour standings.

The player regarded as the best in chess history, though, was defeated in Nevada, where he could only manage fifth place in the group after falling to Levon Aronian in a tiebreaker. Following consecutive defeats to Wesley and Pragg Carlsen was unable to defeat Aronian in the tiebreaker for fourth place in the group stage, which was a significant surprise in the enlarged 16-player competition and paved the way for a title for players like Pragg.

One Indian is eliminated in Las Vegas, while two others move forward.

With 4.5 points after 7 rounds, Praggnanandha had the joint lead in the White Group, indicating that his advancement was secure. In the present arrangement, two groups of eight grandmasters compete for the top four spots, with the top four from each group advancing to the championship bracket and the bottom four competing in the bottom bracket. In addition to defeating Carlsen, Pragg also scored notable victories over Vincent Keymer and WGM Bibisara Assaubayeva to secure his spot in the championship round.

In addition to Pragg, Arjun Erigaisi also advanced from the Black Group by placing third overall. Controversial GM Hans Niemann and Hikaru Nakamura, who is currently the frontrunner for the tournament, are ahead of him. Vidit Gujrathi, the final Indian competitor in the competition, ended up at the bottom of the Black Group, which was not great news.

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