MUMBAI — Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali has reached a big goal: she will compete in the Women’s Candidates Tournament after doing quite well at the FIDE Grand Swiss. In the 11th and final round, Vaishali fought hard to a tie with Zhongyi Tan, a former world champion from China. He ended with eight points out of a potential 11. Russian Kateryna Lagno will also be there with her, as she qualified with the same score.
Vaishali’s qualification is very important since it makes her the third Indian woman to make it to the Candidates. The other two are Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh, who finished first and second in the last Women’s World Cup. For the first time, three Indian ladies will be battling for the chance to go on the current world champion.
Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri won the open section by beating Hans Moke Niemann from the United States. Giri, who also got eight points, made it into the men’s Candidates. Matthias Bluebaum from Germany will join him. He is in line to grab the second qualification slot from the tournament.
There will be eight participants in both the men’s and women’s portions of the Candidates event. So far, the men’s qualifiers are Anish Giri and Matthias Bluebaum (from the FIDE Grand Swiss), Hikaru Nakamura (based on his rating), R Praggnanandhaa (based on his performance in the tournament circuit), and Fabiano Caruana. The World Chess Cup, which will take place next month in Goa, India, will decide the last three berths.
The person who wins the Candidates will get to battle D Gukesh, the current world champion, for the title. It looks like the future of Indian chess is on a historic upward path, with three Indian ladies and at least one Indian man (R Praggnanandhaa) already qualifying for the Candidates. Anish Giri said, “There are eight spots and more than eight great players.” It’s going to be hard no matter what system you use because you have to fit eight players into 20.
Arjun Erigaisi drew with Vincent Keymer, Nihal Sarin drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Vidit Gujrathi drew with Abhimanyu Mishra in the open section. D Harika beat Carissa Yip in the women’s section, and Vantika Agrawal and Irina Bulmaga drew.
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