Freestyle grand tour: Erigaisi 1st Indian to reach semis, Pragg falters

Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi defeated Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov to storm into the semifinals but R Praggnanandhaa bowed out of the title race after losing to USA’s Fabiano Caruana at the $750,000 Freestyle Grand Slam Tour.

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Arjun Erigaisi prevailed over Abdusattorov 1.5-0.5 while Praggnanandhaa lost an intense battle 3-4 against Caruana.

The American duo of Levon Aronian and Hans Moke Niemann were the other winners in the quarterfinal stage, defeating compatriot Hikaru Nakamura and Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan respectively.

Harika, Divya, Humpy in quarters

Batumi: Grandmasters Koneru Humpy, D Harika and R Vaishali and International Master Divya Deshmukh stormed into the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Women's Chess Cup, scripting history as India became the first country to have four players in the tournament's last-eight stage. All four women won their tiebreaks to advance to the last eight stage.

While Aronian won by a 2.5-1.5 margin over four games, Niemann took longer in beating Sindarov 4-2.

In the semifinals, Arjun will take on Aronian while Niemann will meet Caruana.

In the lower bracket, world number one Magnus Carlslen regained his winning touch and ousted Vidit Gujrathi 2-0. American Wesley So won 1.5-0.5 against compatriot Samuel Sevian while Leinier Dominguez Perez had a smooth 1.5-0.5 victory over Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan.

Vincent Keymer of Germany, the winner of the first leg, defeated Robson Ray by 2.5-1.5 margin.

Arjun was a class act in both games and enjoyed the advantage from the word go. Playing white in the second game the Indian won a rook for a Bishop early, and very soon, it did not look like a Freestyle game, as Arjun simply overpowered Abdusattorov with his extra material.

Earlier in the first game too, Arjun enjoyed an advantage after the opening, but some unforced errors in the later part of the game allowed the Uzbek to get a half point.