At the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2026, which took place in Cyprus from March 28 to April 15, eight of the sharpest minds in chess matched wits and will over 14 rounds in 19 days, hoping to survive and eventually surpass the field. For Indian star Vaishali Rameshbabu, it was a defeat deep in the tournament that brought some respite.
Having started the Candidates with four draws and a loss, Vaishali, the lowest rated player in the field, found herself one full point ahead of the rest after beating Aleksandra Goryachkina in round 11. In the next round, she went down to Zhu Jiner and fell back into joint lead with the Chinese GM.
“When I lost to Zhu Jiner I felt, ‘OK, we’re back to normal now.’ And the last two days I was just trying to focus on my game and give my best, because that’s under my control,” the 24-year-old said during the official post-tournament press-conference.
Taking sole lead after the 11th round had come with added weight of pressure and Vaishali hasn’t always been comfortable with being the front runner. Not because of a lack of ambition. But she would rather be the hunter than the hunted.
She made the leap in the final round, with six players still mathematically in with a chance to win. Bibisara Assaubayeva and Vaishali, who started the final round on 7.5 points each, had the best chance. While Assaubayeva was held to a draw by India’s Divya Deshmukh, Vaishali played one of her best games of the tournament to beat Kateryna Lagno and become the first Indian woman to win the Candidates.
It secured her the golden ticket to the World Championship match against title holder Ju Wenjun later this year. Vaishali will become only the second Indian, after Koneru Humpy in 2011, to compete in a World Championship involving just two players.
The milestone moment has thrust Vaishali into the spotlight. And out of the considerably big shadow cast by her younger brother R Praggnanandhaa.
Their origin story is now part of Indian chess folklore. To distract Vaishali from bingeing on television, especially cartoons, her father, Rameshbabu, enrolled her into the Bloom Chess Academy in Chennai when she was seven. When Vaishali would practice at home, Praggnanandhaa would watch intently. He followed in his sister’s footsteps and picked up chess at a very young age. With the siblings showing early promise, they began training at Chess Gurukul, under GM, master tactician and Dronacharya awardee RB Ramesh.
Rameshbabu, who worked as a branch manager at TNSC Bank, would take Vaishali and Pragg to the academy, about an hour, hour and a half away, on a two-wheeler every day. Her mother, Nagalaxmi, was a home maker and has been the pillar of strength and support for the siblings, travelling with them to all tournaments, home and abroad. While Vaishali possessed the ability to sit still and problem solve for hours on end, it was her brother who made the first move.
“When Pragg became the youngest International Master, he crossed my rating for the first time. Suddenly at home, the focus was entirely on him,” Vaishali told BBC in a 2023 interview.
“It upset me. I don't think I managed those emotions well. My parents would chat with me about it and I'd be okay for a while. But every time he had a great result and the attention was on him, I would slip back to feeling a bit miserable. It took me some time to overcome those feelings and accept that he is exceptional. Once I completed my Woman Grandmaster (WGM) title, I felt better about myself.”
Though Vaishali made a mark with her bold and beautiful game, it was her brother who won the adulation. To the outside world, she was better known as Pragg’s sister. When Indian chess underwent a surge during the pandemic, it was the men’s players, led by world champion D Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa, who were at the forefront. For women’s chess in India, Koneru Humpy remained the gold standard and young emerging talents like Deshmukh generated the buzz.
Vaishali was always part of the conversation but rarely the focus of it. She was low key, her game high risk. She took lines of attack chess engines recommended against, left pieces hanging in search of the elegant solution. Like Marcel Duchamp once said, “While all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.”
In an interview with ChessBase India in late 2023, Vasihali admitted to being seduced by aesthetics, “It's nice to play some games like these, not for just norms and titles, personally satisfying for me.” A maverick with the poise of a monk.
While there were flashes of aggression and wilfullness during the Candidates event, it was her resilience that saw her through. After a slow start, Vaishali turned things around in the sixth round, scoring her first win, also against Lagno. She survived the highs and lows, charted territory known and unknown to win the event outright.
Later this year, she will bid to become the first Indian woman to win the World Championship.
“Winning the World Championship title is one of the big goals,” Vaishali told FIDE in an interview before the Candidates. “But also, I want to keep improving my game. That is something I am looking forward to, because I am not sure how far I can go.” The hunt is on.