How R. Vaishali bounced back to make history in Candidates chess

The last time an Indian figured in the FIDE women’s world championship game was 15 years back when Koneru Humpy took on Hou Yifan in 2011. R. Vaishali, who was hardly in the running after failing to win a single game in the first five rounds of the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament , created story by becoming the first woman from the country to win the qualifying event in Cyprus on Wednesday to set up a clash with China’s reigning champion Ju Wenjun later this year.

The 24-year-old Vaishali, who had been living in the shadows of her prodigious sibling R. Pragnanandhaa for the past few years, was finally rewarded for her fortitude and measured approach in this marquee event. The Candidates title guarantees Vaishali a minimum of 28,000 euros in prize money along with additional earnings of 2,200 for every half-point scored - rounding off a significant campaign both competitively and financially.

This was the second Candidates event on the trot for both the siblings which saw Pragg, tipped as one of the favourites, fading out after starting with a win against Dutch No.1 Anish Giri to lie in seventh position with the final round to go on Thursday. The World Championship battles in the Open and women’s sections will have at least one Indian each with reigning champion D. Gukesh facing off Uzbek winner Javokhir Sindarov while it will be Vaishali-Ju in the women’s category.

‘’We will have one horse in both races,’’ remarked Viswanathan Anand, five-time world champion and FIDE Vice President, pointing to India’s presence at the top of both sections.

‘’The last two years have not been the best for me. I dropped a lot of rating. Except for one tournament, everything was going wrong for me. But I knew at my best, I can fight with all of them on equal terms,’’ a relieved Vaishali said at the press conference after the 15^th round – explaining about how she was the lowest player in the tournament. The Chennai girl was over a 100 ratings point lower than Zhu Jiner, the top ranked player in the women’s event.

A reflection on Vaishali’s campaign underlines how she rallied back as after five rounds of the 14-round tournament, she was placed near the bottom of the standings alongside compatriot Divya Deshmukh and Tan Zhongyi. The start looked eerily familiar to her first Candidates campaign two years back in Toronto, when she lost four games in a row to find herself last in the rankings after nine rounds.

 However, she had bounced back to win her final five games in a row to fight her way back to contention – an experience which may have given her the self belief to turn things around. Vaishali began to put together a series of steady results and by the start of the last round, the title race had narrowed to a three-way contest. Vaishali was tied at the top with Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Assaubayeva while Zhu Jiner was just half-a-point behind.

Playing with the white pieces against Kateryna Lagno, Vaishali needed to at least match her rival Assaubayeva’s result while at the same time, she required the Kazakh to drop points in her game against Divya. Despite a difficult run in the latter half of the tournament, Divya held Assaubayeva to a draw – but Vaishali still needed a point to ensure herself of the title.    In a calm and controlled performance, Vaishali eventually outplayed Lagno to secure the full point and with it, the tournament.

There is no room to ponder over the ifs and buts as senior pro Humpy, who qualified to play in the title match in 2011 by finishing in overall second position in FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2009-2011 series, opted out of the Candidates citing her security concerns about the venue as Cyprus is geographically located close to Israel – who, along with US, had been locked in a conflict against Iran since February-March. FIDE has, meanwhile, decided not impose any fine or penal measures against the Indian ace.

The World Championship battles at the end of the year hence throw up a mouthwatering prospect of having both Indian men and women’s champions – though it will be quite a daunting job.