R Vaishali Becomes GM, Joins Praggnanandhaa To Form World's First Brother-Sister GM Duo
The 22-year old Chennai-based Vaishali crossed the 2500 mark at the tournament in Spain where she defeated Turkish FM Tamer Tarik Selbes in the second round.
Indian chess ace R Vaishali joined younger sibling R Praggnanandhaa to become the world’s first-ever brother-sister Grandmasters duo and only the third woman from the country to earn the GM title, at the IV El Llobregat Open in Spain.
Vaishali achieved the feat after crossing 2500 ELO rating points on Friday. She is the country’s 84th GM.
related stories
The 22-year old Chennai-based Vaishali crossed the 2500 mark at the tournament in Spain where she defeated Turkish FM Tamer Tarik Selbes in the second round.
She obtained her third GM norm at the Qatar Masters tournament in October and needed to increase her ELO rating.
Congratulations to Vaishali Rameshbabu on becoming India’s 84th Grandmaster.She is only the 3rd Indian woman grandmaster.
Vaishali and her younger brother, chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, have become the first-ever Grandmaster brother-sister pair in history. pic.twitter.com/WsRcqeQvbs
— India Wants To Know: India’s First Panel Quiz Show (@IWTKQuiz) December 2, 2023
The 22-year old Chennai-based Vaishali crossed the 2500 mark at the tournament in Spain where she defeated Turkish FM Tamer Tarik Selbes in the second round.
They also became the first-ever brother-sister duo to make the Candidates, the qualifying event for the World Championship match. The Candidates will be held in Toronto in April.
Her younger brother Praggnanandhaa had got the GM title in 2018, when he was just 12.
Koneru Humpy and D Harika are the two other women GMs from India.
Humpy was the world’s youngest female player ever, when she became a GM in 2002, at the age of 15.
Chess legend Viswanathan Anand congratulated Vaishali on social networking platform ‘X’.
Congratulations to @chessvaishali for becoming a GM.She worked very hard the last few months and this augurs well as she gets ready for the candidates. Her parents and just maybe the competition at home should be congratulated.@Rameshchess & Aarthie for being her rock.
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) December 2, 2023
“She worked very hard the last few months and this augurs well as she gets ready for the candidates. Her parents and just maybe the competition at home should be congratulated.
@Rameshchess & Aarthie for being her rock," Anand wrote.
Vaishali was introduced to chess by her father, Rameshbabu, who himself was a chess player.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI)- Location :
- First Published: