Three Indian players — D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi —have advanced to the quarter finals of the Aimchess Rapid online tournament.

Gukesh will take on Richard Rapport in the knockout round, while Erigiasi will battle it out with world No.1 Magnus Carlsen. Gujrathi will take on Jan-Krzystof Duda of Poland.

Gukesh and Erigaisi, who stunned world champion Magnus Carlsen in the preliminary phase, finished second and fourth respectively. Gujrathi finished eighth to seal the final knockout berth.

Gukesh (27 points) ended up one behind Duda, while Erigaisi also logged 27 points.

The trio notched up wins in the 15th and final round of the preliminary phase. Gukesh beat Richard Rapport, while Erigaisi defeated Anish Giri of the Netherlands.

Gukesh opened the final day of the preliminary stage with a loss to Vincent Keymer of Germany before beating fellow Indian Aditya Mittal and Rapport.

Gujrathi, who was outside the qualification bracket after 12 rounds, scored against compatriot Mittal and David Anton Guijjaro of Spain in the 13th and 15th rounds respectively, while sharing honours with Rapport in the 14th. His strong performances in the last three rounds helped him advance to the quarter finals.

Giri’s loss against Erigaisi helped Gujrathi, who scored victories in three of his last four games.

Carlsen, whose form has been up and down in the preliminary phase, took fifth place with 26 points. He tripped Duda in the final round after settling for draws in rounds 13 and 14 against Daniel Naroditsky and Giri, respectively.

P Harikrishna scored 14 points and took the 13th spot, while young GM Mittal settled for 15th place with 12 points.

The Aimchess Rapid tournament is part of the Meltwater Champions tour and features 16 players, including five Indians.

On Monday, Gukesh had stunned Carlsen in the ninth round of the preliminary phase, becoming the youngest to beat the world champion.

The 16-year-old from Chennai beat the world No.1 with white pieces to move up to third position behind Poland’s Jan-Krzystof Duda (25 points) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 23 points) with 21 points after the 12th round.

Gukesh’s 29-move dismantling of the world champion comes a day after his 19-yearold compatriot Arjun Erigaisi had posted a maiden win over the world champion.

“Gukesh just became the youngest player to beat Magnus after he became WC! Hats off to the 16-Year-Old Indian superstar,” Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, of which the Aimchess Rapid event is a part, said on its Twitter feed.

Gukesh broke the record of fellow Chennai-teenager R Praggnanandhaa. In February, Praggnanadhaa was 16 years, six months and 10 days old when he beat Carlsen in the Airthings Masters. Gukesh surpassed the mark on Monday at 16 years, four months and 20 days.

“Obviously, beating Magnus is always special but I was not really very proud of that game,” was Gukesh’s candid admission.

Carlsen said, “I was really disappointed because I’d seen an easy way to win, but I thought I’d seen something even easier, but I hadn’t seen his threat of trapping the queen in the middle of the board.”