Vaishali Rameshbabu | Grit and global glory

Chess entered the Rameshbabu household in Chennai with a simple aim: wean their six-year-old daughter, Vaishali, off television. But little did he and wife Nagalakshmi know that not only would their little girl take to the game but that even her younger brother Praggnanandhaa would follow suit, and the siblings would go on to create history as the first brother-sister duo to become grandmasters (GMs). Last week, Vaishali Rameshbabu, 24, added another jewel to her crown by winning the Candidates tournament, earning her a shot at challenging five-time world champion Ju Wenjun for the title. If Vaishali outwits the Chinese legend, she will enter the history books as the first Indian woman to become world champion.

To play in the soundproof glass enclosure against the best in the world has long been Vaishali’s dream. “Both siblings wanted to be world champions,” says their coach R.B. Ramesh, who was India-bound after watching his protg take the top spot in Cyprus. It wasn’t just that Vaishali won the toughest classical chess tournament featuring a top-tier field, it’s the way she did it which was a source of pride for Ramesh. “In the first half [seven matches], she was struggling. Then she settled down and started believing in herself more,” he said, singling out her wins against compatriot and World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh and Russian grandmaster Aleksandra Goryachkina. “Against Divya, she avoided her opening preparation and just tried to play the game, and with Goryachkina, she played a good positional game, kept the pressure on and induced a mistake.”

BORN TO SHINE

Vaishali was 11 and Pragg had just won the under-8 world title when they walked into Ramesh’s academy, Chess Gurukul, in 2014. “They were very strong players already,” he noted. “Vaishali was very hardworking and a good attacking player.” Prod him on what made the siblings excel, and he attributes the success to their parents. Nagalakshmi would accompany the kids daily on their hour-long commute by bus to the academy. “They don’t put much pressure on them,” he says. “One huge mistake most parents make is that they raise the bar too high in terms of expectations. Just because they want something good to happen doesn’t mean it will. The outcome of that is frustration. With these two, they had the freedom to play chess the way they wanted.”

The petite, sari-clad Nagalakshmi is a familiar face at tournaments, offering emotional support and even cooking sambhar and rasam for the kids in foreign landscapes. From the beginning, Rameshbabu, who had already overcome the challenges of childhood polio and made a career as a bank manager, took on the job of managing both children's careers with enthusiasm. “Our father is our biggest strength,” Vaishali said, talking to the media in Cyprus.. “He has made a lot of sacrifices.” In a rare interview to website, ChessBase India, Rameshbabu, too, spoke of the financial strain of supporting two professional chess players, ensuring they had everything they needed as they pursued their passion.

That Vaishali was a generational talent was well known in chess circles. And not just on the board, but off it too. “Every game is new in its own way, you find an interesting line, an idea, sometimes even sacrificing a piece gives me a lot of joy,” she told the FIDE channel. It wasn’t a surprise then that Vaishali was one of the first four GMs—and the only woman—invited to join the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA) when it started in December 2020. “I was impressed with the level of her game,” says former world champion and WACA co-founder Viswanathan Anand. “Over time, as I got to know her, I realised she also has great tenacity. Even when she is struggling in a tournament, she is able to keep it together and keep playing. She doesn’t crumble under pressure.”

RISING FROM THE ASHES

However, resilient as she may be, 2025 was Vaishali’s toughest year and she nearly gave up hope of qualifying for the Candidates. “If you see my [Elo] rating, it dropped. Everything was going wrong,” she says. At the Chennai Grandmasters, she scored just one out of a possible nine points. International Master (IM) and ChessBase India co-founder Sagar Shah, who covered the tournament, recalls Vaishali being outplayed in almost every game. Low on confidence and feeling a little lost, what helped was the support of family and chess friends. Vaishali recalled how GM Karthikeyan Murali told her to not let self-doubt cripple her. “He said my self-worth shouldn’t be judged by one tournament,” she told ChessBase India in an interview later. Her brother Pragg pushed her to play the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament, which she went on to win to qualify for the Candidates. “Even when I doubted myself, they kept believing in me,” she says.

Losses, it is a common belief in the sporting world, teach you more than victories. Slumps are part and parcel of the game, but it’s the way players deal with adversity that make them stand out. “If you overanalyse the rough period, it could be harmful,” said Anand. “It’s the best time to experiment, introspect, examine what you can change, take some risks.” Or, as Vaishali puts it, “Every time I go low, I also peak.”

Vaishali had a nervy moment at the 2026 Candidates when, in her own words, she started with “shaky, high-pressure games”, leading to four consecutive draws followed by a loss. “I was scoring points by luck,” she told FIDE in an interview after her win. By the time she scored her second win, courtesy a massive blunder by former world champion Tan Zhongyi, Vaishali had willed herself to focus on the quality of her play. A point up and just three rounds to go, she lost to Chinese GM Zhu Jiner. “Things had started to go wrong, but she kept her cool,” says Shah, who observed Vaishali from close quarters. “That loss to Zhu would have been the end of the road for manybut she found a way to take it in her stride.” Again, Vaishali had her team to thank for her holding steady. That team included GM Pranesh M., who was brought in to keep the mood light and help plan openings and play blitz games.

THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS

Grandmaster Koneru Humpy was the first and last Indian woman to vie for the world champion’s throne, back in 2011. Anand sees similarities in her and Vaishali—both are great students of the game with the acumen and nous for a long career. As Vaishali gets into what will be a period of intense preparation, Anand offers some valuable advice. “Though the occasion puts a lot of pressure on you, in the end, it’s just chess,” he said. “It’s not some magical thing where you will do things different. It’s about turning up and playing a good game. I will just tell her to be confident and bold.”

On coach Ramesh falls the job of preparing Vaishali for the epic battle. But he isn’t too worried about his “most hard-working” student. “There are people who want great things in every aspect of life without deserving any of it. Vaishali has made a lot of sacrifices to focus on chess. Her commitment to the game, discipline...they are all qualities that behove a great champion.”