World No 1 Carlsen was third as Aronian took the $200,000 prize in the Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Grand Slam
Levon Aronian, at 42 the oldest in the tournament, scored what he described as “one of the crown jewels” of his career to win the $200,000 (£148,000) first prize at the Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Grand Slam last weekend. Aronian did it in style, winning matches against the world No 1 Magnus Carlsen, the No 2 Hikaru Nakamura and the No 5 Arjun Erigaisi en route to victory.
Carlsen had to settle for the third prize of $100,000, plus the further indignity of finishing behind his arch enemy Hans Niemann, whose game with the Norwegian at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup led to allegations of cheating and a $100m lawsuit, which was eventually settled out of court.
Niemann was invited to join the commentary team for the final stages of Aronian v Carlsen, and made the most of his triumph and a post-game reunion with Aronian.
Carlsen blamed his defeat on a “complete collapse” of his nervous system. Besides his failure against Aronian, he also allowed Wesley So a mate in four moves. In fairness, he recovered well from his expensive early errors, scored five successive wins before defeating Nakamura in the third place match, and still leads the overall Tour standings going into the next multi-hub leg in September and the final in Cape Town in December.
