CHENNAI: R Vaishali will start preparing for the World Championships after taking a well earned short break from the circuit. At the felicitation function organised by the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association (TNSCA) for winning the women’s Candidates event in Cyprus, the Indian GM also said the one reason why she won was her ability to ‘keep defending well in worse positions’.
“It’s hard to point one,” she said when asked what attribute of hers gave her the crown. “I played decently in all areas. It’s very hard to point one. Maybe I was resilient. I didn’t give up in some positions. I had some worse positions but I kept defending well.”
That’s true. In multiple games throughout the tournament, she found herself in tricky situations but she protected her king by employing a lot of tactics or she found resources which allowed her to build middle game pressure. The 24-year-old said that she wasn’t sure of winning the tournament, even in the final round. “It was not clear until the last game. It was just wide open. Even in the last round, 5-6 players had a chance to win the tournament,’’ said Vaishali.
Players may usually break down such a long gruelling event on a day-by-day basis and Vaishali, who featured in her second Candidates, said she adopted a similar strategy. “It’s a long tournament,” she said. “You just have to take one game at a time. I just tried to focus on that particular game. I had some tough games but I think I always came back thanks to the people who supported me. I found it tough to beat Zhu Jiner. I lost both the games to her. Both the games were interesting but tough ones.”
Difficult to say what went wrong: Praggnanandhaa
R Praggnanandhaa was hoping to challenge D Gukesh’s world title by winning the open title. But Javokhir Sindarov made it into a procession. “It’s difficult to say what went wrong,” Pragg, who was also part of the function, said.
“I don’t think anyone was close to even catching him at some point. He basically ran away with the tournament. He conceded that some moments didn’t go his way. “There were some winning positions which I didn’t win. If I had won those (games), then obviously results could have been better.”
