Freestyle Chess Tour Paris: Erigaisi suffers second consecutive loss; Carlsen and Nakamura play out draws in semis

Arjun Erigaisi lost to Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi in 41 moves in their 5th-8th place playoff match while Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura played out draws against Fabiano Caruana and Vincent Keymer respectively in the semi-finals.

Arjun Erigaisi suffered a second consecutive defeat in the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour on Friday while Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura played out draws against Fabiano Caruana and Vincent Keymer respectively in the semi-finals. As for the other Indians in action on
Day 5 of the Paris event, R Praggnanandhaa played out a 46-move draw against Richard Rapport in their 9th-10th classification match.

Arjun, who is making his Grand Slam Tour debut in Paris alongside compatriots Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi, lost to Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi in 41 moves while playing with black pieces in the opening game of their 5th-8th classification match.

Nepomniachtchi consolidated his position on the board after a hat-trick of solid moves (16. Rb6, 17. Bc3 and 18. Qd2), with Arjun helping his case with a blunder in the 27th move (Ng5). The world No 4 later resigned despite having his Queen on the board.

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