BENGALURU: Whenever R Vaishali had some free time in Paphos, the idyllic resort town in Cyprus where the Candidates was held, she either played table tennis or padel. Vaishali doesn't consider herself to be a good table tennis player. In fact, in one of the interviews, she called herself a 'terrible' player.
It's just that she wanted to, at least every now and then, forget about the chess world. She didn't want to always think about openings, rook-bishop endgames and castling queenside. She was feeling a lot of pressure, especially after beginning the tournament with four draws and one defeat. So the 24-year-old engaged in some form of eustress to calm her mind.
It's where M Pranesh played a key role behind the scenes. Officially, the 19-year-old, who became a GM at the age of 16, went to Cyprus to be Vaishali's second. Someone who would help in preparation and coming up with novelties. Unofficially, Pranesh, another RB Ramesh product, was there as a sparring partner. "He's a fun person to be around," Vaishali said in a small interview to Chessbase India after winning the Candidates tournament on Wednesday. "Lots of things were happening within me, it was crazy. It was Ramesh sir's idea to take Pranesh."
Even as the 24-year-old wanted to go through some of her lines as late as an hour before games, Pranesh played the role of friend, confidante and younger brother, all rolled into one (R Praggnanandhaa, who was part of the open Candidates, had to prepare for his own matches). "I was too tense," Vaishali said in the same stream. "Even one hour before games, I was preparing and he used to say, 'akka (elder sister), it's okay, you have got this.'"
On each of the four rest days, both of them played padel apart from Blitz games to help ease the pressure off Vaishali. "He would wait for the rest days because that's when we played padel," Vaishali said. To which Pranesh quipped: "That was my motivation (laughs)."