5 min learnApr 15, 2026 10:30 PM IST
Name it the Miracle of Cyprus. On a dramatic day on the Candidates match, the place the whole lot that might have labored in Vaishali Rameshbabu’s favour did so, the Indian grandmaster managed to win the second-most prestigious match within the sport, thus securing her a battle with Ju Wenjun for the Ladies’s World Championship crown.
The consequence implies that for less than the second time in chess historical past, an Indian girl will battle it out for the Ladies’s World Championship title. Vaishali is the second Indian girl to earn a spot on the prestigious World Championship, following within the heels of Koneru Humpy — who challenged Hou Yifan for the ladies’s crown at Albania’s Tirana 15 years in the past in 2011. In full distinction to Vaishali’s end, her brother, Praggnanandhaa, ended the match in seventh spot, successful only one recreation out of 14, which was his first recreation of the match.
This was the second time each Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali have been competing within the Candidates tournaments. After 5 rounds within the 14-round occasion, Vaishali was in final spot together with Divya Deshmukh and Tan Zhongyi. The sort of match Vaishali has had since then could be illustrated by the truth that whereas each Divya and Tan ended the occasion as the underside two, Vaishali shot to the highest of the standings.
Vaishali’s exceptional resurgence shouldn’t be surprising. On the Candidates match in Toronto two years in the past, she had misplaced 4 video games in a row to seek out herself final within the standings after 9 rounds. Then, she had bounced again by successful her closing 5 video games in a row which just about noticed her win the entire thing.
Whereas many grandmasters had named Pragg as one of many favourites within the open Candidates match, Vaishali was not a pre-tournament favorite within the girls’s occasion, that’s being performed parallely. 5-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, whereas making his tier-list predictions earlier than the occasion for Chess.com, had solely named Vaishali as one of many three ‘darkish horses’ with him ranking the possibilities of 5 different gamers forward of her.
The Candidates triumph is the third big-ticket match Vaishali has received up to now three years: the 24-year-old has received the treacherous FIDE Grand Swiss match—twice!—moreover additionally being a part of the Ladies’s Olympiad triumph in 2024. However not like the opposite occasions, Vaishali received this occasion in an exciting picture end on the ultimate day.
Vaishali had led the standings since spherical 8, the place she was sharing the lead with 4 others. One spherical later the herd on the high received pruned to 2 gamers: Vaishali and Zhu. After Spherical 10, Vaishali held the only real lead of the match, however she misplaced to Zhu in Spherical 12 to return to sharing the lead.
Story continues under this advert
Heading into the ultimate spherical, Vaishali was tied on factors on the high of the eight-player standings with Kazakh star Bibisara Assaubayeva. Vaishali wanted to win (or a minimum of not lose) her closing recreation towards Kateryna Lagno and hope that compatriot Divya Deshmukh would have the ability to draw or defeat Bibisara of their closing spherical conflict. Had each Vaishali and Bibisara slipped up, Chinese language rising star Zhu Jiner was additionally snapping at their heels, simply half a degree behind.
Although each Vaishali and Bibisara have been stage on factors coming into the ultimate spherical, the match state of affairs was in favour of the Kazakh. That’s as a result of Lagno, Vaishali’s opponent within the closing spherical, had a motive to chase victory towards her: a win would maintain Lagno’s personal slim hopes of successful the title alive. However Bibisara’s closing spherical rival, Divya, was within the final spot within the standings and has been in wretched kind up to now week, shedding 4 of her final 5 video games.
Some chess nerds, diving head-first into the rabbit gap of permutations and mixtures, additionally found out a method the place 5 gamers may finish Wednesday tied for first place and return to the board on Thursday for a tie-break. For that to occur, the Anna Muzychuk vs Zhu Jiner recreation needed to finish in a draw, whereas Aleksandra Goryachkina needed to beat Tan Zhongyi, and in a single day leaders Vaishali and Bibisara would each must lose their video games. If the competition went into tiebreaks, it could imply one other day of combating, within the sooner time controls.
However as Wednesday wore on, issues fell neatly in place for Vaishali.
Story continues under this advert
Divya shrugged off her woeful type of the previous week to carry the match chief to a draw. In actual fact, there was a degree the place Divya had a slick tactic on transfer 26 together with her knight which might have led to an unshakeable benefit for the Indian. However with Divya below stress on the clock at that stage, she missed the tactic and allowed Bibisara to flee. The sport ended as a draw which gave Vaishali management over her personal destiny.
© IE On-line Media Providers Pvt Ltd