R Vaishali Wins FIDE Women's Candidates, To Challenge Ju Wenjun For World Championship

Bouncing back superbly from a sluggish start to the tournament, Grandmaster Vaishali Rameshbabu outplayed Kateryna Lagno in the final round to be crowned the Women's Candidates champion in Paphos (Cyprus) on Wednesday (April 15).

Vaishali has thus earned the right to take on China’s Ju Wenjun in the World Championship match later this year. In doing so, Vaishali, who was the lowest rated player in the field at the start and tallied a total of 8.5 points, followed in the footsteps of Koneru Humpy, a feat that underscores the steady rise of women’s chess in India.

In the Open section, Javokhir Sindarov played out a draw with China’s Wei Yi to seal his place as the challenger to reigning world champion D Gukesh. Meanwhile, Vaishali's brother Praggnanandhaa signed off with a draw against American star Hikaru Nakamura.

Anish Giri finished a clear second, 1.5 points behind Sindarov, after defeating Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum, while Fabiano Caruana also notched up a win against Andrey Esipenko.

Results

Open: R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 6) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA 6.5); Andrey Esipenko (Rus, 4.5) lost to Fabiano Caruana (USA, 7); Matthias Bluebaum (Ger, 5.5) lost to Anish Giri Ned, 8); Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 9.5) drew with Wei Yi (Chn, 6).

Women: R Vaishali (Ind, 8.5) beat Kateryna Lagno (Rus, 6.5); Bibisara Assuabayeva (Kaz, 8) drew with Divya Deshmukh (Ind, 6); Anna Muzychuk (Ukr, 6.5) playing Zhu Jiner (Chn, 7); Tan Zhongyi (Chn, 5.5) playing Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rus, 6.5).

(With PTI inputs)