Vaishali completes final GM norm in Qatar Masters, closes in to become a Grandmaster

R. Vaishali, at 22, secured her third and final Grandmaster (GM) norm in the Qatar Masters chess tournament on Saturday. With a live rating of 2467.7, she is now less than 32.3 points away from crossing the Elo rating of 2500 and becoming a GM.

GM Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan (7 points) won the tournament and Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov (7) came second while India’s S. L. Narayanan finished third, with 6.5 points.

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Though Vaishali was placed 44th in the overall rankings, Vaishali was first among women in the tournament, with a score of five out of nine points and a better tie-break score than Divya Deshmukh, who also had 5five points. She received USD 5000 for becoming the first woman player with the best placement in the final placings.

If Vaishali indeed achieves the 2500-mark, she will be India’s third woman GM after Koneru Humpy and D. Harika.