Erigaisi storms into semifinals, Pragg loses

Las Vegas: 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 here.

Arjun 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 quarterfinals stage, defeating compatriot Hikaru Nakamura and Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan respectively.

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 No. 1 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, also from America,

by 2.5-1.5 margin.