DC Edit | Tri-colour On World Top Chess Tables

The candidate who will challenge the reigning chess queen in the World Championship match will be an Indian. On the men’s side, an Indian will sit at the table to defend his status as the king of the chess world. The country has achieved superpower status of the 64-frame game thanks to a steady flow of high-profile Grandmasters and players with other coveted titles, of which India has produced dozens.

On Wednesday, Vaishali Rameshbabu turned the tables by defeating Russia’s Kateryna Lagno in the final round on a tight field and taking a half-point (8.5-8) lead over Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Assuabayeva to take her place in the table against China’s Ju Wenjun in the Women’s World Championship match later this year. Another Indian provided covering fire to Vaishali. Last year’s Women’s Chess World Cup champion Divya Deshmukh was instrumental in holding Assuabayeva to a draw, limiting the Kazakh’s lead to eight points.

By winning, Vaishali emulated fellow Indian Koneru Humpy, who won the Women’s Candidate Chess in 2011. However, Humpy did not participate in this tournament, citing security fears arising from the war in the Middle East, as the tournament was held on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, located in Western Asia; Israel in the north, Türkiye in the south and Lebanon in the west.

Bombs didn’t matter to Vaishali, who focused on peacefully dismantling the enemy’s arsenal from the board piece by piece to win strategic battles. This victory also marks 24-year-old Vaishali coming of age and stepping out from the shadow of her younger brother Praggnanandhaa, who has made a splash in the chess world by winning big-ticket competitions.

Vaishali’s brother Pragg was also in action in Cyprus but fell short amid tough competition that restricted him to six points. Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov won the race with a total of 9.5 points and took his place as the rival of world champion Gukesh Dommaraju from India. This means that the tricolor team will proudly take the top spot at the World Championship.