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 down to defend his status as king of the chess world. The country has carved out its status as a superpower of the 64-squares game, thanks to the steady flow of high profile Grand Masters and players with other coveted titles that India has been producing by the dozen. On Wednesday, Vaishali Rameshbabu turned the tables on a tight field to defeat Russia’s Kateryna Lagno in the final round and edged ahead of Bibisara Assuabayeva of Kazakhstan by half-a-point (8.5-8) to earn her place on the table across China’s Ju Wenjun in the Women’s World Championship match to be held later this year. Another Indian provided the covering fire for Vaishali. Last year’s Women’s Chess World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh was instrumental in holding Assuabayeva to a draw, limiting the Kazakh’s tally to eight points. By emerging victorious, Vaishali emulated fellow Indian Koneru Humpy, who had won the Women’s Candidates Chess in 2011. However, Humpy did not take part in this edition citing security fears arising out of the war in Middle East since the tournament was held in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus which lies in West Asia; north of Israel, south of Turkey and to Lebanon’s west . The bombs did not matter to Vaishali, who was focused on dismantling the enemy arsenal on the board, piece by piece, peacefully, to win strategic battles. The victory also marks 24-year-old Vaishali’s coming of age and stepping out of the shadows of her younger sibling Praggnanandhaa, who has been making waves in the chess world by winning big ticket events. Vaishali’s brother Pragg too was in the fray at Cyprus but trailed off amidst tough competition that limited him to six points. Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan won the event with an aggregate of 9.5 and booked his place as the challenger to world champion Gukesh Dommaraju of India. Which means the tri-colour will sit proudly at the top tables, come the World Championships.



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