Immediately after D Gukesh became the youngest challenger to the World Championship throne in Toronto in April 2024, Garry Kasparov remarked it as an ‘Indian earthquake in Toronto’. One of the greatest GMs of all time continued: “The ‘children’ of Vishy Anand are on the loose”.
Almost two years since Gukesh’s win in Toronto catapulted him on to the world stage, another success story was etched in the sands of time, this time in the European resort town of Paphos in Cyprus. For at least the last hour of R Vaishali’s last round match against Kateryna Lagno, she was on her way to becoming the second Indian woman to advance to the women’s World Championship match. As soon as Lagno decided to resign in a hopeless position, the Chennai GM was lost for words.
A 15-year-old journey had reached its most significant pitstop. After winning the most important match of her career yet, the 24-year-old, who was first put in chess classes as a six-year-old, said ‘this was a result of all the hard work’.
They say that it takes a village to raise a champion. In Vaishali’s case, it’s true. Her parents have sacrificed a lot. Brother R Praggnanandhaa has been a pillar of support. RB Ramesh and wife, Aarthie, to the outside world, are coaches. For Vaishali, they have been part family members, part friends, part mentors and part counsellors.
A lot of young GMs -- from R Pranesh who travelled to Cyprus to be part of her team of seconds -- to the likes of Adhiban Baskaran and Karthikeyan Murali made themselves available whenever Vaishali approached them for help.
This victory, though, first and foremost, is a triumph for the kind of resilience she has always had in oodles.
Her story began in a west Chennai suburb around the time Anand was frequently on the front and back pages of most newspapers. Chess, for many families in Tamil Nadu, is must-have board game because it’s safe, indoors and cheap. That was why Rameshbabu and wife, Nagalakshmi, bought their daughter a chess set when she was six. It was then going to be a recreational activity. Within six months of playing the game, Vaishali had shown an uncommon aptitude for it. One of her first coaches, Thyagarajan, was one of the first persons to identify this.
Before long, she was winning age-group gold medals for India. A prodigy had been unearthed. But growth and development in elite sport is never linear. It ebbs and flows. And Vaishali was no stranger to his facet.
Rapid growth was followed by months of pain. She also had to contend with the rapid rise of Praggnanandhaa. Her younger sibling zoomed past her in the ratings, set records and she was no longer the best player in the family. The worst was yet to come as she began to chase a final GM norm and rating points.
In a heart-felt interview to this daily in 2024, she had said: “I have been working with RB Ramesh sir for the last 10 years. I have also been training at the WACA (Westbridge-Anand Chess Academy) for the last 3-4 years where I get to train with all the top trainers. There I got to train with Sandipan Chanda sir. I got individual sessions. He’s the one who put this thought... to play freely and to enjoy the game like as a kid.” Once she divorcing her performance and results, the results turned.
In the months that followed, she had made the final GM norm, won the Grand Swiss and qualified for the last Candidates where she won five games on the bounce before finishing second. But Vaishali has always been a player who has lacked that belief in herself. It’s something she alluded to in the press conference after winning this edition of the Candidates. “My team has always had more belief in me than me.”
If that period before she won her first Grand Swiss in 2023 tested her, 2025 was bad. She dropped a lot of points and was a shadow of her former self when she turned up to feature in the Challengers section at the Chennai Grand Masters. Seven losses on the trot meant she questioned every little detail. She turned to her parents for some words of comfort.
At one point, she even decided to skip the Grand Swiss for some home comfort. But her colleagues convinced her to give it a shot. In Samarkand, Vaishali rediscovered love for the game as she won her second Grand Swiss.
It’s here that Ramesh played a vital role. “Vaishali has had her share of ups and downs,” he said in an interview to this daily moments after her history-defying win in Cyprus. “Despite all that, what matters is we keep the journey on and not lose hope in ourselves. Make use of the chances that come our way and she has managed to do that exactly. Really happy and proud about this.”
Perseverance, though, has always defined her. And it will continue to define her when she faces five-time world champion Ju Wenjun at the upcoming title match.