R. Vaishali becomes India’s third female chess Grandmaster

Indian chess Grandmasters R. Vaishli, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit in New Delhi. File
| Photo Credit: ANI

R. Vaishali, on December 1, became only the third woman from India to get the Grandmaster (GM) title, the highest a chess player could aspire for. Koneru Humpy was the first; she was, in fact, the world’s youngest female player ever, when she became a GM in 2002, at the age of 15.

The other Indian female GM is Dronavalli Harika. 22-year-old Vaishali completed the final requirement – 2,500 Elo points – during the ongoing Llobregat Open tournament in Spain.

She had got her third GM norm from the Qatar Masters tournament in October and all she needed was to increase her Elo rating. A stunning performance at the Grand Swiss tournament last month in the Isle of Man, where she became the surprise winner, took her closer to that target.

Vaishali isn’t the first from her family to become the Grandmaster, though. Her younger brother R. Praggnanandhaa had got the GM title in 2018, when he was just 12. The siblings from Chennai have also made it for the Candidates tournament, the qualifying event for the World championship match.

The Candidates will be held in Toronto in April.