R Praggnanandhaa Leads Indian Charge At Las Vegas Freestyle, D Gukesh Opts Out

Last Updated:July 16, 2025, 14:49 IST

Indian chess star R Praggnanandhaa joins Magnus Carlsen in a 16-player Freestyle tournament in Las Vegas, featuring a USD 750,000 prize pool.

R Praggnanandhaa is in the same pool as Magnus Carlsen at the Las Vegas Freestyle event (X)

Teenage Indian chess star R Praggnanandhaa finds himself grouped with Magnus Carlsen, while Arjun Erigaisi and Vidit Gujrathi are paired together in another pool for the 16-player Freestyle tournament being held in Las Vegas.

Carlsen is once again the favourite to win the title in this edition, which featured a lot of pre-event activities, including the participation of NBA players. The tournament proper begins late on Wednesday.

The event has a total prize pool of USD 750,000, with 200,000 reserved for the winner. Each group consists of eight players and the top four will advance to the next stage while the bottom half will compete against each other.

World champion D Gukesh will miss the event as he will be playing the main event of the Grandmaster tour in about a month.

The 19-year-old Praggnanandhaa will begin his campaign against Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, a player who struggled in the previous edition of the Grand Chess Tour in Zagreb, Croatia.

Carlsen will face the winner of the first edition, Vincent Keymer of Germany, in his opening round.

American Hans Niemann will make his first appearance in the Freestyle chess tournament and will take on Erigaisi in the opener.

Gujrathi will compete against Fabiano Caruana of the United States. For the first time, a woman player, Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan, has been included in the lineup to compete against the world’s elite.

Freestyle chess is a new name given to Fischer random chess or chess 960, where the position of the pieces is changed at the start of the game.

With little theory in the books, this version is gaining popularity, as tame draws out of the openings have vanished, leading to many fighting matches right from the start.

(With PTI Inputs)

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News sports R Praggnanandhaa Leads Indian Charge At Las Vegas Freestyle, D Gukesh Opts Out