CHENNAI: It’s been a magnificent year for Indian chess and now, there’s an icing on the cake. Chennai girl R Vaishali, who had earlier sealed a spot for the women’s Candidates tournament and made history by becoming the first brother-sister duo with R Praggnanandhaa to do so, is now the third Indian woman to become a Grandmaster.
On Friday, with two consecutive victories in the ongoing Ellobregat Open tournament in Spain, Vaishali steered past the 2500-mark Elo rating to reach the milestone that Koneru Humpy and D Harika did before her. According to FIDE (The International Chess Federation), Vaishali and Prag are the first-ever brother-sister pair to be GMs.
After qualifying for the Candidates, Vaishali told TOI that she was confident of completing her final requirement soon. “It had already been a long wait for the norms for me, so I don’t mind waiting for some more time,” Vaishali had said, and how well she kept her promise.
Vaishali achieved her first GM norm in 2019 and took three years to win the second norm in 2022. And, finally, after a year later she obtained her third and final norm in the Qatar Open in October.
Vaishali’s coach RB Ramesh, who has played a pivotal role in her career so far, was a proud man on Saturday. “Vaishali’s ambition for many years was to become a GM and it has happened now, so I am very happy about it. It is not easy to achieve this and only a few women have managed to do this world over. Having qualified for the Candidates, winning the FIDE Grand Swiss ahead of so many strong players, and now this, she is in very good form,” Ramesh told TOI.
While the brother-sister duo is the toast of the chess world now, Vaishali had to deal with her own demons when Prag was running away with the accolades and she had to live with the tag of ‘Prag’s sister’.
“For many years, I was living as Prag’s sister. Now, slowly, I think it’s getting to Vaishali. At least some people see it as Vaishali. I am very proud of being Prag’s sister, but I also want my own name. I think I would like to be remembered as one of India’s greatest women chess players,” she said a few days earlier.
Now, the 22-year-old has broken India’s 12-year wait to find its third woman Grandmaster. She also became India’s 84th GM and is now the current world No. 11 in women’s ranking with a live rating of 2501.5 and India’s number two after Humpy.
For Vaishali, Humpy and Harika have always been an inspiration. “They have always been an inspiration. I sometimes wondered how they got their Grandmaster titles. I mean, they completed it, like, quite some years ago, when there weren’t as many tournaments. Now, we have a lot more tournaments to participate in, but still, we girls are struggling to do it. It still puzzles me how they managed to do it quite early with less number of opportunities. So, they have always been an inspiration. In the last few years, I’m also getting to speak with them and learn.”
Brother Prag, too, has been a pillar of strength for Vaishali as she went about doing her job in the last few years. “Prag was the one who put Candidates qualification thought into my head. He made me believe that I’m strong enough to get there and play well. Prag has been my biggest inspiration. There are a lot of inputs that we share. He helps me a lot in preparations too,” she said.
Now it’s time for the two siblings to build on the success and bring more accolades for the country.
