Vaishali, India’s third female Grandmaster, is making all the right moves

For years, she lived in her prodigious brother’s shadow. R. Vaishali, the elder sister of R. Praggnanandhaa, is now hitting headlines regularly on her own.

Last month, in the Isle of Man, she stunned the world, winning the Grand Swiss tournament after starting out as the 12th seed. The top prize also gave her a ticket to the Candidates tournament – the qualifying event for the Word chess title match.

She will travel to Toronto next April for that prestigious event as a Grandmaster (GM). On Friday, she became only third Indian woman to get the GM title, the highest a player could aspire for in chess, after Koneru Humpy and Dronavalli Harika.

Harika got the title 12 years ago. That gives a fair indication about the significance of Vaishali’s feat.

The 22-year-old from Chennai completed the final requirement for the title – 2500 Elo points – during the ongoing El Llobregat Open tournament in Spain on Friday.

She had already made the three GM norms, the last of which came at the Qatar Masters tournament in October.

Her talent had never been in doubt, but the last couple of years have seen her making steady progress. She played a key role in India winning the bronze medals in the women’s event of the Chess Olympiad at Mamallapuram last year; she also won the individual bronze.

She followed it up with a superb show at the Tata Steel Chess India tournament in Kolkata, winning the blitz title.

“It is great to find to know that she has been doing well in both classical and speed chess,” her coach R.B. Ramesh told Sportstar over phone.

“Getting the GM title is important for her career; it has been her dream for a long time.”