Reaching the top of chess’ pecking order — a Grandmaster — can even go a great distance in liberating Vaishali from the tag of being ‘Praggnanandhaa’s sister’, as she has been referred to over time.

While it was Vaishali who first began taking part in the game, it was Praggnanandhaa, her youthful brother, who began making waves on the chess scene, turning into the world’s  youngest International Master. But now, GM Vaishali, who final month additionally secured a spot on the prestigious Candidates Tournament by profitable the ultra-competitive FIDE Grand Swiss event, is attaining all of the targets she had set for herself as a child.

“For a phase in her career, when Pragg started doing well, it had a bit of a negative impact on Vaishali because of all the attention on Pragg. She was referred to as Pragg’s sister. But she’s a good player herself in her own right. So that was not a pleasant situation to be in. The fact that she has qualified for the Candidates and has become a Grandmaster… She’s shown that she can stand on her own merits, which is very important for her as well,” says Grandmaster RB Ramesh, who has been a coach and mentor for each siblings since their early age.

But, in line with Ramesh, having a participant like Praggnanandhaa at house additionally comes with its perks. “They help each other during tournaments. They practice a lot at home,” Ramesh advised The Indian Express final month. “In recent times, Pragg has tried to help her with prep… giving her opening ideas and so on. It’s always good to have a strong player in the home helping you.”

While Vaishali clinched the GM crown a lot after her brother, she gave an early indication of her chess credentials a decade in the past, when Magnus Carlsen got here to Chennai to tackle reigning champion Viswanathan Anand within the World Chess Championship.

Much earlier than Pragg’s famed victory in opposition to Carlsen in an internet chess event in February 2022, Vaishali was amongst those that defeated Carlsen in an exhibition recreation in 2013 — referred to as a simul — that the Norwegian performed in opposition to 20 Indian juniors on the identical time. She was simply 12 years outdated then.

And all her coaches vouch for her dedication to the craft. As a seven-year-old, her potential to take a seat nonetheless on the board with monk-like self-discipline was what struck S Thyagarajan, who was her first coach on the Bloom Chess Academy in Chennai, the place she was despatched by her mother and father to wean her off cartoon reveals.

“Her biggest quality that stood out for me was how she could stay patient for five hours — or more — at that age. Time plays a big role in chess. You need to play long matches to improve your rating points. That she could sit for hours at a stretch was very special. Besides that, she could also play fast under time pressure. At the age of seven or eight, these are not common qualities. She could do both,” Thyagarajan says.

It was that type of self-discipline that began getting her outcomes that had her coaches rubbing their eyes in disbelief. Her most jaw-dropping efficiency, Thyagarajan says, got here when she defeated a participant over 150 ranking factors larger to say the U12 World Championship.

In these early days, seeing Vaishali scythe by the remainder of the sphere, M A Velayudham, the founding father of Bloom Chess Academy, had boldly remarked the woman would in the future rule the game in India. All these years later, just like the seven-year-old model of herself sitting glued to a chess board, she’s been unwavering.

“Most players also have other interests. And they’re trying to manage chess along with balancing those other interests. In her case, she’s dedicated herself completely in this journey (to the top). It’s not easy. Her single-minded dedication makes her different,” says Ramesh.

Indeed, devoted they’re, each siblings. “Right from the start, when they were not very strong players, just reasonably good players, they would travel nearly one and a half hours daily just to get to my chess academy. No matter what… Even in heavy rain, they would both travel on their father’s two-wheeler. At the academy, there would be non-stop chess for four hours. Everyone else would take a break in the middle. Not Pragg and Vaishali,” says Ramesh.

“Eventually, what stood out about the two was that they never got bored of chess,” he provides.