Praggnanandhaa loses to Caruana after 7-game marathon lasting over 10 hours; Arjun Erigaisi, Hans Niemann in semis

The Praggnanandhaa vs Fabiano Caruana, which lasted for 10 hours, had plenty of drama: rooks being blundered, both players winning on demand, and even a unique Armageddon game where players had to make secret bids on time they would get on their clock.

“It’s amazing. I’ve had a few of these matches, but none quite this long. And also with so many swings, you know, losing the first game and then coming back and then also losing with white… I thought it should be over at that point, but then somehow coming back in the rapid and then reversing. The Armageddon was also crazy. It was very, very complicated. And then he was also trying to flag me, but at some point I looked at the clock, I saw I had 17 seconds. I looked like a few minutes later, I still had 17 seconds. I thought, okay, I’m probably not going to get flagged,” Caruana told the official Freestyle Chess YouTube handle.

The first game of the Praggnanandhaa vs Caruana showdown saw the Indian claim a win with white pieces, which meant that the American needed to win on demand in the reverse game with white pieces himself. Caruana did just that after a little help from Praggnanandhaa, who suddenly blundered his rook under time pressure.

With the two 30 min (+ 30 sec per move increment) games proving inconclusive, both players were back on the board to battle it out in two 10 min (+ 10 sec per move) games. Here too, Praggnanandhaa won the first game, this time with black pieces. Then, he lost the reverse fixture with white pieces.

Now the matter would be decided with an even frenetic pace: two games of 5+2 blitz games. In the first one, there was a wild time scramble.The drama on the board was reflected on the evaluation bar which rocked up and down like a plane in turbulence with every couple of moves. Finally, Caruana emerged victorious. Now Praggnanandhaa needed to win on demand. And he did, thus forcing a unique Armageddon battle.

The Armageddon format usually sees the player with white pieces have more time on the clock, but they need to win. The player with black pieces have less time on their clock, but they just have to hold out a draw to secure victory. At the Las Vegas event of the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour, there was a unique twist to this, with both players bidding the time they would want to play as black. Praggnanandhaa bid 4:27 for playing black, Caruana bid 4:02. So Praggnanandhaa played with white with five minutes on the clock while Caruana had draw odds with 4:02.

It was there that Praggnanandhaa finally yielded.

Caruana has played a few Armageddon games in the past and drew from those experiences.

“I got black in Armageddon every single time. I think that I realized probably it’s good to have
black I don’t know why, but it feels better to have black, even if you’re down a minute. In each Armageddon game, I felt like it’s easier to play a bit faster. With black, you have less to worry about. With white, you always have to consider so many things and it gets in your head that you
have to get an advantage or something. So, it feels a bit easier to play freely with black, which is why I went a bit lower (with his time for black bid).”

In the other games of the tournament, Arjun defeated Nodirbek by winning the second 30+30 game after a hard-fought draw in the first game. Meanwhile, in the Lower Bracket, Carlsen defeated Vidit Gujrathi in both games. Besides Carlsen, Wesley So, Vincent Keymer and Leinier Dominguez also won their ties, thus eliminating Gujrathi, Sam Sevian, Ray Robson and Bibisara Assaubayeva — all four players were eliminated and shared 13th place at the tournament.