R Vaishali becomes third Indian women's Grandmaster after crossing 2500 rating points

R Vaishali becomes the third Indian women's Grandmaster and 84th overall in India after crossing 2500 rating points in 2023 El Llobregat Open in Spain on Friday. After Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali became the third woman Grandmaster from India to set the record.

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R Vaishali and her younger brother R Praggnanandhaa are now the first siblings to be Grand Masters. The 22-year-old Grandmaster, R Vaishali, who has three GM terms namely Xtracon Open 2019, Fischer Memorial 2022 and Qatar Masters 2023, needed only 4.5 ratings to cross the 2500 mark.

R Vaishali is currently ranked 11th in the world with a live rating of 2501.5 in the women's rankings, followed by India at the second position. The winner of FIDE Women's Grand Swiss 2023 has also qualified for the Candidates tournament. She was the first Indian woman to achieve the feat. With this Vaishali has become India's number two taking over Harika Dronavalli and world number eleven.

R Vaishali won two games back-to-back at the tournament to become India's latest GM. She is the third-ever women Grandmaster of India. Vaishali ended a long wait of 12 years after Harika became GM in 2011.

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Vaishali was the first one from the family to engage in chess and the siblings started playing the sport to distract themselves from television. Coached by Grandmaster RB Ramesh, both siblings started their careers under his watchful guidance. Earlier this year, the duo became the first siblings to qualify for the Candidates tournament. Pragg qualified after finishing runner-up in the Chess World Cup, while Vaishali earned her qualification after winning the Grand Swiss Open.