A Grandmaster much before the title was officially bestowed on her by FIDE recently, Indian chess player R Vaishali has revealed that there was a time she was unsure of being able to achieve the feat but managed to pull through owing to a good support structure. (More Sports news)
Vaishali completed the requisite 2500 ELO points Llobregat Open tourname𒈔nt in Spain to become only the third Indian woman after Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronava𝓰lli to become a GM.
However, the title was officially given to her only recently following the FIDE Council meeting✅ during the Candidates Tournament in Toronto last month.
"After completing the (Wome♋n's GM) title, I knew it would be changed to GM someday. I did not thin��k about the title so much," she told PTI in an interview.
"Yeah, it took some time to get it official, but I'm happy that the title is finally out. I was okayඣ with it (the delay)," she added.
The 22-year-old is basking in the glory of her solid performance in the Candidate﷽s tournament, where she won five consecutive games to finish joint second.
She became a Woman Grandmaster in 2018 after completing🔥 her final norm during the Riga Techni꧑cal University Open in Riga, Latvia.
Having h💯ad to wait six years to finally earn the GM 🌞tag, Vaishali said she became a bit unsure of the GM tag after her ratings stagnated due to lack of competition during the COVID 19 pandemic.
"In between, I could not play any tournament for two🥃 years due to the (COVID-19) pandemic. But, I was working throughout, trying to improve my game. I completed my International Master (IM) cycle post-pande𓃲mic (in 2021)," she recalled.
"Although I was improving my game slowly, my rating became stagnant. There were some low moments when I felt I might not get the title, but people believed in me and helped me to at𒈔tain it," she said.
Vaishali is the elder sister of Rღ Praggnanandhaa, the 18-year-old who has been making waves for quite a while. Together, they became the first brother-sister duo to qualify for Candidates' event this year.
Talking about her relationship with Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali stated, "We talk a l𒅌ot about our games, which is naturalꦚ since we have been playing together since our childhood.
﷽"He helps me a lot with my game. It's great to have such a strong player at home with whom I can discuss more about the game at any time."
When asked about the support she and her brother get from their🍷 parents, Vaishali described them as their "biggest strength".
"Our parents are the biggest strength for both of us. My mother accompanies us to our tournaments on most of the occasions. She takes care of almost everything, and we just k❀eep focusing on our game," she revealed.
"Our father takes care of things like logi♏stics, planning and finances. In fact, both of them take care of most of our needs, which indeed helps us focus more on our game. Really grateful to them."
Away from chess, Vaishali is currently pursuing the PG 🔜Diploma course in Human Resꦑource Management.
However, she has no qualms admitting that she has no academic aspirations and is focussed on professional chess with this month's Women's Masters♋ in Norway being he♈r next assignment.
"I am i♈n the⛦ final year of my Human Resource Management course after having completed my B.Com. But, I don't have any academic aspirations. I just want to complete this PG and focus on playing chess full-time and professionally.
"I will be playing the Women Masters in Norway at the end of this month. It's an exciting event as I would be competing in a new format especially the time control, besides a couple of other tour𒁏naments as well," concluded Vaishali.
