Praggnanandhaa survived a thrilling final game to clinch a 3:1 victory over Levon Aronian and move to a perfect 12/12 after Round 4 of the FTX Crypto Cup. Pragg is still level with Magnus Carlsen, who pounced on blunders to beat Liem Le 3:1, while Alireza Firouzja is 4 points behind in 3rd place after winning a rollercoaster battle with Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Hans Niemann talked about ways to “numb the pain” as he went on to lose to Anish Giri.

Levon Aronian was Praggnanandhaa's 4th victim

Round 4 of the FTX Crypto Cup was another day when no tiebreaks were required, with Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa, Carlsen and Giri all winning in rapid chess to pick up the full 3 points and $7,500.

You can replay all the games from the FTX Crypto Cup using the selector below.

Praggnanandhaa 3:1 Aronian

The most exciting match of the day saw 17-year-old Indian prodigy Praggnanandhaa follow wins over Firouzja, Giri and Niemann by taking down world no. 6 Levon Aronian.

The first game was relatively quiet, but in the second Pragg went for the same move 4 pawn sacrifice that his India 2 teammate Adhiban had played in the penultimate round of the Chess Olympiad in Chennai. Twice in that game Adhiban had offered a bishop sacrifice on g3 and, after allowing Levon to pick up a second pawn, Pragg would do the same.

The computer claims — and we’re in no position to doubt it! — that after 19.Qc4! White is winning, with no way in the long run to defend both attacked bishops. 

After 19.Qe4 Bf5!, however, Levon went for an endgame where his small advantage fizzled out into a draw. Pragg knew he’d escaped.

Game 3, however, went like a dream for Pragg, with Levon horribly misplaying a Grünfeld when he went for 10…b6?. 11.a4! was already almost a winning move, while 11.Qb3 Bd7 12.a4! was almost as strong.

The threat is c4 and winning the trapped queen, but if you play it with the bishop still on f1 then Black has Qa6. That meant Bb5 was the key move, but you also can’t play that immediately or Black will capture on b5 and the undefended a1-rook will force an exchange of queens.

That’s why Pragg met 12…e6 with the star move 13.Ra2! and suddenly Levon needed to take drastic actions. He didn’t, and after 13…Bc6 14.Bb5! it was all over bar the shouting! “Unbelievable” is how Peter Leko described it.

Levon tried to muddy the waters with 14…c4, but Pragg finally won the queen for just two minor pieces a few moves later. He never let go, and Levon’s only achievement was to reach move 34 before resigning.

That meant Game 4 was a must-win for Levon, so he had every reason to welcome Pragg repeating the risky pawn-sac line from Game 2. Pragg was playing very well, however, and 20…Nxd4! was a completely correct sacrifice.

Objectively it seems to offer the draw Pragg needed, while after 21.exd4 Rxe2+ 22.Nxe2 Qe4 Levon’s 23.Bg5 (23.Be3!) gave Black the advantage, with the critical moment coming after 23…Re8 24.Be3 a6 25.Qa4 b5 26.Qxa6.

Immediately after the game Pragg regretted giving up the a6-pawn with 25…b5!, but in fact he’d played the best move in the position, and here the winning move was to ignore the rook on h1 and play 26…Qf3!, threatening mate on e2.

Black has all kinds of threats, with e.g. 27.Qxb5 being met by 27…Rxe3!, but to go for that you should also see 28.fxe3 Qxh1+ 29.Kd2 Qxh2!

It’s not enough to see it, you also have to assess this position as completely winning for Black, since despite the extra material White can do nothing and the h-pawn will queen.

Instead after 26…Qxh1+ Levon managed to emerge unscathed and two pawns up.

Soon Levon was winning and on track to force a playoff, but he fell for some tricks and when Praggnanandhaa executed the final piece sacrifice on c3 Levon graciously extended his hand in congratulations.

It had been a fantastic match, with Pragg’s coach commenting on Twitter.

Ramesh had earlier shared some photos!

Pragg himself joined Peter and Tania to talk about the games.

Pragg needed that win in rapid chess to keep pace with Magnus Carlsen.

Carlsen 3:1 Le

This match couldn’t compare with Pragg’s victory for drama, but it was notable for a few key moments. Magnus’ attacking play in the first game almost backfired, but just when he was in some trouble he got to play 32.Re2!, securing a draw.

The point, as we saw in the game, was that 32…Rxe2 runs into 33.Qd8+ Qg8 34.Qf6+ and a draw by perpetual check.

The 2nd game was a quiet draw, while in the 3rd Magnus went for a nice piece sacrifice and was applying heavy pressure, but it was only the one-move blunder 33…Rb5? that decided the match. 34.Rd8! forced instant resignation.

There’s no defence against the threat of Rxe8 with checkmate.

The 4th and final game was also decided in one moment.

25.Bxh6! for Liem here is enough for a draw, with some hope for more if Magnus failed to respond correctly. Instead 25.Nxe5? was a blunder, running into 25…Ne7!  26.Qf4 (the only square to keep defending the knight) 26…Ng6 and White is losing at least a piece. Liem sacrificed his queen with 27.Nxg6 but it was hopeless.

The only player within 4 points of Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa, and still with a realistic chance of catching them, is Alireza Firouzja.

Firouzja 2.5:1.5 Duda

Jan-Krzysztof Duda had some unflattering things to say about his current play in Miami.

I’m basically being outcalculated all the time. I’m calculating very, very poorly, and the thing is that you can lose even to a monkey if you are thinking the way I’m thinking.

Jan-Krzysztof quickly clarified that his opponents aren’t monkeys, and Alireza Firouzja, arguably the best calculator around, found a win in Game 1 when Duda went astray in a rook endgame.

In Game 2, however, the roles were reversed, with Peter Leko explaining the secret to avoiding such suffering in rook endings.

Alireza then smoothly won the 3rd game, though Duda felt he had only himself to blame.

The most upsetting moment about this match for me is the third game, in which I just sacrificed a pawn for speculative compensation, something I normally never do. It’s very against me — basically I don’t quite get my decision making!

Duda still got chances to mount another comeback and take the match to tiebreaks.

Here 41.Rg1+! Kh6 42.Rg8! Kh7 43.Re8 and only then targeting the black king with the bishops turns out to be winning, but after 41.Bd2+ Kg6 42.Rg1+ Kh7 Black had everything under control. Alireza got the draw he needed to win a second match in a row, and since he now has the struggling Hans Niemann in Round 5 before facing Magnus Carlsen in Round 6, he can’t be ruled out.

Giri 2.5:1.5 Niemann

Anish Giri and Hans Niemann have been fighting a running battle on Twitter for months…

…so there was a little extra spice going into their Round 4 clash. On previous days Hans had started with wins over Magnus Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa, but this time he slumped to defeat as Anish scored a crushing positional win.

The second game was drawn fast, and for a while it seemed Anish would wrap up victory with a game to spare, but suddenly Hans took over to win the 3rd game and level the scores. Cause for celebration? Well, not exactly.

Hans gave one of the more memorable post-game interviews we’ve ever witnessed at a chess tournament.

He began, talking about his win:

I’m just absolutely miserable! The fact that that happened is a miracle, a complete miracle, because I literally, the fact that I have not already gone to the mini-bar and pulled a Magnus, or the fact that I haven’t just jumped in the pool. The fact that I am alive at this moment is a miracle, because after I lost this first game I think I was really just ready to go into the ocean and never come back.

Why had he started playing much faster?

I wanted to lose as quickly as possible so I could go back to my hotel room and turn all the lights off, order some delivery, and watch Netflix and numb the pain until the next game.

He added:

My UberEats in this event is already maybe $1,000 deliveries, so I have been indulging and numbing the pain with $1,000 of Uber eating.  

And that was an interview after a win, with one crucial game to follow. Hans needed a draw to pick up at least his first point of the event, but unfortunately for him, Anish had come prepared.

11…cxd4 had already varied from 11…Be7 in Niemann 1-0 Yilmaz from the Capablanca Memorial, while the surprising 13…Rg8! was one of the computer’s top choices.

The problem was that Anish knew too much about the position, and Hans already went astray on move 17.

After 17.Qg3 hxg5 18.Be3 Bg7 19.Na4 Be5! Giri was winning, and although the conversion was a little bumpy he held on to clinch victory in the match. The standings now look as follows with only 3 rounds, and a potential 9 points per player, to go.

In Friday’s Round 5 we have Niemann-Firouzja, Aronian-Giri, Le-Praggnanandhaa and Duda-Carlsen. Can Jan-Krzysztof regain the kind of form that saw him win the Oslo Esports Cup?

Don’t miss all the FTX Crypto Cup action here on chess24 from 12:00 ET (18:00 CEST)!

See also: 

• Meltwater Champions Chess Tour homepage
• FTX Crypto Cup Key
• FTX Crypto Cup Games and Commentary
• Magnus Carlsen tops FTX Crypto Cup line-up
• Giri-Carlsen, Pragg-Firouzja in FTX Crypto Cup
• FTX Crypto Cup 1: Carlsen, Pragg, Aronian and Duda win
• FTX Crypto Cup 2: Carlsen plays 1.a3, leads with Pragg
• FTX Crypto Cup 3: Carlsen & Pragg still perfect