India’s teenage chess prodigy, R. Praggnanandhaa stunned world number one, Magnus Carlsen in a historic win on Wednesday. At the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Las Vegas, Magnus Carlsen was crushed by another Indian feat after Gukesh D topped the leaderboard and won Norway Chess 2025.

19-year-old Praggnanandhaa, too, has beaten Carlsen across Classical, Rapid and Blitz formats and clapped at the five-time world champion in just 39 moves in Las Vegas. Playing with White, Praggnanandhaa had an accuracy of 93.9 whereas the Norwegian grandmaster scored exponentially low, with an 84.9 accuracy.

“I like Freestyle more than Classical right now,” Praggnanandhaa said during an interview with organisers after his remarkable win over Carlsen, the first-ever player to reach a 2900+ rating in Freestyle chess.

Praggnanandhaa in Las Vegas

Adding this victory, as a feather in his cap, Praggnanandhaa also became the leader in the eight-player Group White with 3.5 points. He faced a minor setback after a draw against Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov and a defeat to Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian in Rounds 5 and 6.

India’s Praggnanandhaa also drew against Wesley So in the seventh and final round to finish on top, sharing the top position with 4 points with the Uzbek.

Where was Gukesh?

However, fans seem to be questioning “where is Gukesh?” as he witnesses the action from the sidelines. Dommaraju had reportedly withdrawn from the league ahead of the tournament. Currently, R Pragganandha, Arjun Erigaisi, and Vidit Gujrathi represnt India in Las Vegas. While Gukesh was present in the Paris leg of the Freestyle Tour, he failed to qualify even the knockout round and finished in the bottom four of the round robin.

ALSO READ

Magnus Carlsen struggles

Carlsen ended the tournament in fifth place with four points from seven matches. Since both he and Aronian had four points, they faced off in a two-game tiebreaker to decide who would take fourth place; Carlsen lost both games, ruling him out of contention for the Las Vegas leg title.

He started the Las Vegas round of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam strongly, defeating Vincent Keymer with the Black pieces and then beating Aronian in the following round. After drawing against Sindarov with the White pieces, Carlsen suffered a defeat to Praggnanandhaa in Round 4.