Chess: 3 out of 5 Indians reach Aimchess Rapid knockouts

Three Indian Grandmasters - Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi, and Dommaraju Gukesh, have made their way into the knockouts of the ongoing Aimchess Rapid Online tournament.

While Gukesh and Arjun finished second and fourth respectively after the preliminary rounds, the more experienced Vidit was the last name to make it into the final eight.

Going into the final round of the prelims, Vidit seemed almost out of the equation. He not only needed to register a win himself, but also hope that the Dutch GM Anish Giri loses to fellow Indian Arjun Erigaisi. And that's exactly what happened.

Playing with the black pieces against Erigaisi, where even a draw would have been enough, Giri floundered to hand the Indian youngster a win. Vidit, on the other hand, made quick work of David Anton to pocket a win and make it through to the quarterfinals.

While Erigaisi might have helped his countryman edge into the knockouts with his win over Giri, he will now has his task cut out in the quarterfinal against World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

Just days after he defeated him in the preliminaries, Erigaisi will once again have to go head to head against the Norwegian who had defeated him in the final of the Julius Baer Generation Cup last month.

On the other hand, Gukesh will face Romania's Richard Rapport while Vidit will face the preliminary round winner Jan-Krzystof Duda in the quarters on Tuesday.

The other Indians in fray at the Aimchess Rapid - Pentala Harikrishna and Aditya Mittal finished 13th and 15th respectively.