The queen’s gambit: Vaishali Rameshbabu’s journey from last place to victory
It’s a brutal marathon that lasts several years. But first Vaishali had to win the first match of this tournament and her opponent Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova was a strong local favourite.
After the Vienna opening and some initial maneuvers, Vaishali moved the pawn in front of her king. A gamble.
Wasn’t that unsafe after losing seven matches in a row in the previous tournament? “This is how I like to play chess,” he says with a laugh. “This is what I enjoy doing, I wasn’t thinking about anything else. I thought g4 must be the best move in this position. I calculated some lines and everything looked convincing. So I went for it.”
Instead of accepting the offered pawn, her opponent launched his own attack, trying to burst the central phalanx formed by Vaishali. A brutal melee ensued.
“After move 40, I was one pawn ahead and it was clear that I had won. We were playing under time pressure in the last few moves,” he recalls. Her opponent resigned after Vaishali moved her pawn up and was reincarnated as the queen. “It was a convincing trick,” he says. “It was very important that I started with a few wins because they were so important for my confidence, especially where I was coming from. That’s what kept me going.”He was so disappointed after the Chennai Grand Masters that he didn’t want to go to Samarkand. His brother, Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, currently world No. 5, pushed him, saying, “Nothing can be worse after Chennai.”
“After Chennai, I didn’t have the courage to look for Vaishali,” says Viswanathan Anand. Vaishali is part of a group of brilliant players mentored by the legend as part of the WestBridge-Anand Chess Academy (WACA). In the last few years, Indian chess has witnessed historic records and unprecedented achievements. Founded by Anand and WestBridge Capital co-founder Sandeep Singhal, WACA has been a key player behind the scenes; The last world champion D Gukesh is also one of its graduates.
“But I told the students about my story after Chennai and before KhantyMansiysk. [Anand lost the title in Chennai in 2013 and then went on to win the Candidates the next year in the Russian city] and I hope this idea is lurking somewhere in his mind,” says Anand.
COACHING 2.0
The role of coaching has evolved with powerful chess software called engines that can instantly detect the best moves. Anand sums it up: “How do you pass on advice and experiences and then leave it up to them to figure it out? We really accompany them on their journey.”
This seems like a light touch, but explains Singhal, co-founder and managing partner of WestBridge Capital, a global investment firm that backs entrepreneurs in India and the US: “Think of it as a finishing school of sorts. They all have individual coaches. But really it’s about the last 1%; the people who get it don’t even realize they’re getting it. It’s the last 1% that makes the difference between being in the top 10 or the top 50.” How did you figure this out? “This means finding a set of people who can challenge you, open your mind, and bring in a set of complementary assets that will enhance you with the remaining 1%,” he says.
Singhal describes his own experience: “This happens in business: one in 100 startups succeeds, but the other 99 do just as well. Some interventions have a kind of catalytic, last-mile effect that helps a transition and helps one become confident on the global stage.”
And he adds: “These are all small inputs. It’s not like doing 10 hours of coaching every day for a month. It might be just three hours of coaching in a month, introducing you to world-class trainers, finding a world-class coach.”
Most of the work is done online through sessions with top coaches such as Boris Gelfand and Sandipan Chanda. Lessons are tailored specifically for each participant. “If you’re starting something remotely like the Botvinnik academy in this century, this is what it’s going to look like,” says Anand.
Mikhail Botvinnik, known as the patriarch of the Soviet Chess School, founded a chess academy in the 1960s that produced world champions such as Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, as well as top players from multiple generations. Vladimir Akopian, a former student, said that it was “for the most powerful children of the Soviet Union at that time.” Each participant will perform “4 games: two wins, one draw and one loss.
We were studying for 3 hours in the morning and 2.5 hours in the evening, and when bedtime approached, we were just talking. After all, the whole day was devoted to chess.”
WACA can be described as Botvinnik school with desi tadka. Unlike Soviet central planning, its ethos is more like that of a startup.
“This is a bottom-up revolution happening because Indian families value achievements that use mental ability. And chess is easily welcomed. There is a lot of development,” says Singhal.
This led to a wave of talent who performed very well, especially at the youth level, but struggled to achieve the kind of glory that Anand achieved. “And for that you needed what Anand had put together at WACA,” says Singhal.
So what exactly do they do? Chess preparation may seem incomprehensible to an outsider. Even before a single move is played, chess players calculate possible ways to make the first move, predict their opponent’s reaction, etc.
“This comes from a desire to understand things, get a head start and control different aspects of the game,” says Anand. But he adds that this is also because “we don’t do that, because the game is richer and deeper than we think.”
There is a delicate balance at home in the desire to consider as many possibilities as possible and then implement those pre-prepared plans on the board. “People study chess at home and play on the board, and there’s a constant back-and-forth between the two,” says Anand.
In this way, over the centuries, chess has acquired a thick layer of history, what we call theory, which includes the optimal ways to move pieces and pawns in the opening.
“And of course it’s now mapped in much more detail than before,” says Anand.
How does one have an advantage when everyone has access to computers and chess software? “Given that the best training in giving the right answer is available to every single person on the planet, the differentiation comes in how you can use it wisely; a lot of work goes into choosing your weapons,” says Anand.
CHESS AND BUSINESS
WACA started in 2020 after Anand went to the West-Bridge center in Bengaluru to give a talk on the connections between chess and business. A conversation developed. Now, five years later, what are the connections you see? “There are many parallels between chess and business,” says Singhal. “At the end of the day, building a business worth billions of dollars is a series of moves that the company must make right from the start.” Of course, “the game is much longer and lasts many many years,” he says, adding: “Our world is not as deterministic as chess. The number of possibilities is endless.” But it’s all about “pattern recognition, knowing when to be aggressive, knowing when to get defensive, knowing your opponent’s weaknesses and directing your resources well.”
Vaishali suffered a defeat in the Greater Switzerland tournament, losing to a strong Kazakh player in the 8th Round. At that moment, the tournament was in turmoil for him. “I’m proud that I didn’t break down, I kind of recovered,” he says. The reigning champion managed to draw in the next round and then went on to beat the top
Ukrainian player Mariya Muzychuk in a crazy rook endgame. “I was very lucky,” says Vaishali, who displayed extreme mental toughness just when it was needed.
Vaishali went on to defend her title at the Grand Swiss, clinching joint first place with Russian GM Kateryna Lagno and qualifying for the Candidates.
NEXT MOVE
Says Anand: “I saw this in Vaishali, it could get very good feedback.” Singhal agrees: “Vishali has shown many times that if you work with determination, you can turn around something that is not going well. Often people tend to give up or do not bring the same kind of energy, which can turn things around.” This also applies in business, he says: “What I’ve learned is that just because you might be down in the dumps, that doesn’t mean you can’t turn it around. When I go to businesses that are not doing well, I tell them to turn their game around.”
Both Anand and Singhal are optimistic about the future. “Don’t be surprised if 8-10 of the top 20 players in a decade come from India,” says Singhal.
Anand sees Türkiye as a rising threat but is confident in India and points to young stars such as nine-year-old Sarbartho Mani.
As for Vaishali, she has a more pressing goal. There are approximately six months left for the candidates. The date and location have not been announced yet. So, is he already thinking about his approach, game plans for different opponents, opening strategies? He says: “Since my victory, (the candidates) have been the only thing on my mind.”
Undurti is a writer and chess enthusiast
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