BENGALURU: For a minute or so, R Vaishali composed herself. Sat in her office chair just before making her 40th move of the final round of the women's Candidates, she was calculating a line with a clear checkmate for her at the end of it. But the beginning of that particular line was a devilishly tricky one to find — 40. c4.
On comms, GM Sahaj Grover said 'it was 10/10 tough move to find'. It was tough to find because it wasn't a natural move to make. But once she found that move, the end was near. The eval bar gave her a huge advantage over Kateryna Lagno, a legend of the game.
Thirty minutes later, she allowed herself a smile, after Lagno resigned with check-mate staring her in the face. In the almost 100-year history of the women's World Championship, only one Indian had advanced to the summit clash (Koneru Humpy in 2011). In what was the biggest game of Vaishali's career thus far, the Chennai girl was at her tactical best as she outmaneuvered and outthought her opponent before advancing to the World Championship match against Ju Wenjun.
A professional career spanning less than 10 years had reached its apogee in a large hall inside a luxury Cyprus hotel.
When Wednesday had dawned on the island, the final round of the event promised fireworks in the women's section just because of the possibilities and permutations. As many as six women had theoretical chances of winning. But two — Vaishali and Bibisara Assaubayeva — were out in front, leading by 0.5 points. To add to the narrative, Assaubayeva was facing the other Indian, Divya Deshmukh.
Divya had a sharp chance but she also did well to hold the position to draw the game with the white pieces. The Kazakh could have pushed but was wary of overextending her position. On the other board, Vaishali was already up a pawn and had a small advantage but there was still a lot of danger on the board.
Now, Vaishali had fate in her own destiny. She had to consider both options. Play safe and take the Candidates to a tie-breaker against Assaubayeva on Thursday. But Assaubayeva, a reigning world Blitz champion, has more experience in the faster time controls. She decided to go down the other route; preferring to play for the win.
Both players made small inaccuracies in the middlegame but Vaishali's earlier advantage gave her some leeway. And, then, the fatal blow of c4, a resource the Russian had missed. Throughout her career, the Indian has found these resources time after time to either fight back from totally lost positions or convert an advantage into a totally winning endgame. It's a point GM Srinath Narayanan had made to this daily.
On Wednesday, she used this resource to ascend to a place only one Indian woman had reached before.
Results (Rd 14) Open: Javokhir Sindarov drew with Wei Yi, Matthias Bluebaum Anish Giri bt Matthias Bluebaum, Fabiano Caruana by Andrey Esipenko, R Praggnanandhaa drew with Hikaru Nakamura
Women: R Vaishali bt Kateryna Lagno, Divya Deshmukh drew with Bibisara Assaubayeva