July 21, 2025: Even though Grandmaster Levon Aronian of the United States won the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam here, Indian stars Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa placed sixth and seventh, respectively. In the tournament's finals, Aronian defeated fellow Armenian Hans Moke Niemann 1.5-0.5 after overcoming some nervous moments. World number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway also had a similar experience as he rallied after a disappointing first game to outplay Hikaru Nakamura of the United States in the third-place play-off.
Arjun lost to the US's Fabiano Caruana by a score of 0-2, and Praggnanandhaa beat another American, Wesley So, by a score of 1.5-0.5, to take the seventh spot out of the last eight competitors in this event. Arjun received USD 40.000 for his efforts, while Aronian received USD 2,000,000 for winning the tournament. Praggnanandhaa made sure he wasn’t far behind as he pocketed a total of USD 30000 after his final round win.
On the same day that his sister R Vaishali was eliminated from the FIDE Women's World Cup in Batumi, Georgia, Praggnanandhaa played well as black in the first game, which ended in a draw. However, in the second game, he was relentless and easily won the match, cruising home with ease. Arjun lost both of his matches against Caruana, but the Indian will be pleased that he was in the top four after the group stage was over, despite a promising start that saw him advance to the early stage semifinals. Arjun and Praggnanandhaa will have a busy summer ahead as they travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the E-Sports World Cup, which begins in a few days. Thereafter Arjun will be seen in action in the Chennai Grandmasters tournament starting in the first week of August while Praggnanandhaa will go back to United States for two back-to-back events of the Grand Chess tour in St. Louis.
Results finals:
Magnus Carlsen beat Hikaru Nakamura of the United States by a score of 1.5-0.5; Arjun Erigaisi of India lost to Fabiano Caruana of the United States by a score of 0-2; R Praggnanandhaa of India defeated Wesley So of the United States by a score of 1.5-0.5.