Vaishali Rameshbabu

Vaishali Rameshbabu ( born 21 June 2001) is an Indian chess grandmaster. She is a two-time champion of the FIDE Women's Grand Swiss Tournament, winning consecutively in 2023 and 2025. Having played in two editions of the Women's Candidates Tournament in 2024 and 2026, she won the latter tournament to earn the right to challenge Ju Wenjun for the title of Women's World Chess Champion.

She won bronze medal at the Women's World Blitz Championship 2024.

Personal life

Vaishali was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu on 21 June 2001. Her father, Rameshbabu, works as a branch manager at TNSC Bank, and her mother, Nagalakshmi, is a homemaker. Her younger brother R Praggnanandhaa is also a chess grandmaster; they are the first brother and sister duo to hold the title.

Career 2012-2019: Beginnings Vaishali won the Girls' World Youth Chess Championship for Under-12s in 2012 and Under-14s in 2015. In 2013, at age 12, she defeated future World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in a simul competition that Carlsen held while in her hometown of Chennai for the World Chess Championship 2013.

She won the National Junior Girls Chess Championship (India) consequently in 2015 and 2016.

In 2016, she received the Woman International Master (WIM) title, and in October 2016, she was ranked second in India and World No.12 girl U16-player. At that time, she had an Elo rating of 2300.

She became a Woman Grandmaster (WGM) by completing her final norm in the Riga Technical University Open chess tournament in Riga, Latvia on 12 August 2018.

2020-2022: IM title and Olympiad

Vaishali was the part of the gold medal-winning team at Online Olympiad 2020, where India won its first ever medal.

She received her International Master (IM) title in 2021. In 2022, Vaishali won the 8th Fischer Memorial, scoring 7/9 and winning her second Grandmaster norm.

Vaishali was invited to participate in the FIDE Women's Speed Chess Championship 2022, where she defeated the Women's World Blitz Chess Champion Bibisara Assaubayeva in the round of 16, and compatriot Harika Dronavalli in the quarterfinals.

Vaishali played on Board 3 in the Women's section at the 44th Chess Olympiad at Mamallapuram, Chennai, in July-Aug 2022. The India women's team won the team bronze medal, and Vaishali won individual bronze for board 3.

In December 2022, Vaishali won the Tata Stel Chess India 2022 Blitz Women in Kolkata, scoring 13½/18.

2023-2025: Double Grand Swiss Champion and Olympiad Gold

Vaishali played in the Tata Steel Challengers 2023, scoring 4.5/14 and beating two 2600-rated GMs, Luis Paulo Supi and Jerguš Pecháč. She finished twelfth in the standings overall.

In the Qatar Masters Open 2023, Vaishali received her final GM norm after finishing with 5/9 and a performance rating of 2609. She also won the top women's prize in the tournament, after finishing with better tiebreaks (performance rating) than compatriot Divya Deshmukh. She and her younger brother Praggnanandhaa became the first sister-brother duo to qualify for the respective Candidates.

On January 31, 2024, the India Chess Federation submitted a Grandmaster Title Application She became the first female Grandmater from Tamilnadu.

Vaishali finished 4th at the Women's Candidates Tournament 2024 with the score 7½/14 (+6-5=3), the same score as that of 2nd place Koneru Humpy and 3rd place Lei Tingjie but with worse tiebreaks, she was tied for 3rd after 5 rounds but lost the next 4 games to reach last place and then made an incredible comeback with 5 consecutive wins to end the tournament on a positive score.

In September 2024, Vaishali played Board 2 for the Indian team that won Gold in the women's section of the 45th Chess Olympiad. This marked India's first ever win at the Women's Chess Olympiad.

In December 2024, Vaishali won bronze medal in the Women's World Blitz Chess Championship she finished 1st in the round robin section and was defeated in the semifinals by eventual winner Ju Wenjun.

In September 2025, Vaishali defended her Grand Swiss title at the FIDE Women's Grand Swiss 2025 held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, scoring 8/11. Thus, she qualified for the Women's Candidates Tournament 2026.

2026: Candidates and World Championship

Vaishali won the FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament 2026, scoring 8.5/14 (+5−2=7). She will play in the Women's World Championship against Ju Wenjun.

In June 2026, she won the Rapid section of WR Women's Chess Tour 2026 Asia Leg, defeating Irene Sukandar 1.5–0.5 in the quarterfinal, Kateryna Lagno 1.5–0.5 in the semifinal and Alua Nurman 1.5–0.5 in the final. She also participated in World Rapid and Blitz Team Chess Championships 2026 as part of the Chess Gurukul Team, They finished 5th in the Rapid section and Vaishali won Bronze for Board 6. In July, Vaishali finished last of 6 players in the Challengers section of Biel Chess Festival, In August, Vaishali finished last of 10 players at Cairns Cup scoring 2½/9 (+0-4=5).

Awards

National

Arjuna Award: 2024