Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa defeated World Number 1 Magnus Carlsen and made his way to the top-bracket quarterfinals, along with Arjun Erigaisi, at the US $750,000 Freestyle Grand Slam Tour here.

Praggnanandhaa’s win marks the continuation of the recent trend of Indian players outsmarting Carlsen. Carlsen had earlier been beaten by world champion D Gukesh, who is not competing in this tournament.

Nineteen-year-old Praggnanandhaa was at his attacking best as he effectively deployed his pieces right from the word go. Although Carlsen also had his chances, Praggnanandhaa outsmarted him with some well thought out manoeuvres.

The defeat against Praggnanandhaa had such a demoralising effect on Carlsen that he lost another game against Wesley So in the next round. Shockingly, he was eliminated from the top bracket by Levon Aronian of United States 2-0 in the final tiebreaker for the fourth spot.

The 16-player event has been divided into two groups of eight each. The top four from each pool reached the quarterfinals after playing once with each of the other seven participants. The rules have been framed in such a manner that those who do not make it to the top bracket in the first set of qualifiers can no longer win the event. Carlsen can, at best, finish third if he wins the remaining matches.

Erigaisi, who was in the second group, also advanced to the quarterfinals. It was a fine comeback by Erigaisi, who was struggling initially.

Praggnanandhaa is tied at the first spot in his group with 4.5 points out of a possible 7 with Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Javokhir Sandarov. Aronian is at 4 points. Carlsen ended fifth ahead of Vincent Keymer of Germany, Wesley So and the lone woman participant, Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan.

In the second group named Black, Hikaru Nakamura topped the standings with 6/7 points. American Hans Niemann finished second with 4.5 points. Erigaisi finished tied third on four points with another local chess sensation, Fabiano Caruana. Another American trio of Leinier Dominguez Perez, Sevian Samuel and Robson Ray finished 5/7 in the second group with Indian Vidit Gujrathi finishing at the bottom.

In the quarterfinals, Praggnannadhaa will meet Fabiano Caruana of the United States, while Erigaisi will face Abdusattorov.