Arjun lone Indian to qualify for Freestyle knockouts

The world No 4 – who received three consecutive Freestyle Fridays earlier than heading to Paris – completed fourth with 6.5/11 factors whereas Ian Nepomniachtchi and Magnus Carlsen topped the spherical robin standings with 8.5/11 factors.

In an earlier interplay with HT, Arjun spoke about following the Freestyle occasion in Weissenhaus that occurred earlier this 12 months (which he wasn’t part of), intently and studying a good deal by simply watching the video games.

The opposite three Indians — Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi and reigning world champion Gukesh — are out of operating for the $2,00,000 prime prize and can now play for the Ninth-Twelfth spot in classical matches beginning on Wednesday.

Vidit, who flew to Paris days after his wedding ceremony, had a torrid outing, managing to win simply two video games out of 11 and located himself on the backside of the 12-player spherical robin standings. He typically discovered himself in promising positions, solely to run into time bother, make errors and find yourself in scorching water. Gukesh, with three wins, completed the fast stage only one spot above Vidit.

Spherical 9, which noticed all 4 Indians dropping their respective video games, had Carlsen doing Carlsen issues, throwing in a fantastic Queen sacrifice and turning round a worrisome place in opposition to Richard Rapport right into a win. “Sooner or later it felt like a repetition could be a pleasant conclusion after a loopy recreation however I assumed let’s maintain it going a bit of bit extra,” Carlsen mentioned.

“I didn’t assume I used to be higher however I additionally didn’t assume I used to be operating severe dangers of dropping there…It’s the type of gamble you can also make if you’re doing nicely in a event.”

For the classical format knockout that begins on Wednesday, gamers ranked 1-4 within the spherical robin can, so as, decide their opponent amongst gamers ranked from 5 by way of 8. The time management will probably be 90 minutes + 30-second increment per transfer.

Outcomes (solely Indians):

Spherical 7: R Praggnanandhaa misplaced to Gukesh; Nodirbek Abdusattorov misplaced to Arjun; Richard Rapport beat Vidit

Spherical 8: Vidit misplaced to Ian Nepomniachtchi; Arjun drew Rapport; Gukesh beat Vincent Keymer; Hikaru Nakamura drew Praggnanandhaa

Spherical 9: Praggnanandhaa misplaced to Fabiano Caruana; Nodirbek Abdusattorov beat Gukesh; Nepomniachtchi beat Arjun; Maxime Vachier-Lagrave beat Vidit

Spherical 10: Caruana misplaced to Vidit; Arjun drew Vachier-Lagrave; Gukesh misplaced to Rapport; Praggnanandhaa misplaced to Keymer

Spherical 11: Abdusattorov misplaced to Praggnanandhaa; Nepomniachtchi beat Gukesh; Vidit misplaced to Arjun

High-8: Nepomniachtchi, Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Arjun, Abdusattorov, Nakamura, Keymer, Caruana

ENDS