It is never easy to share a roof with a sibling who is as talented as you, if not more so. Most of us have felt that quiet pang of comparison: the teacher asking why you aren’t quite like your brother, or parents, in an unguarded moment, holding up a sibling’s achievement as the standard. In classrooms, at home, in sporting circles, there is always that lingering suggestion: what if the other one had done it better?
24-year-old Grand Master Vaishali has lived with that suggestion for most of her life. Despite being one of India’s finest chess minds, she was often introduced to the uninitiated simply as Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa’s sister.
But on a decisive Wednesday in Cyprus, the shadow finally retreated.
By winning the Women’s Candidates 2026, Vaishali became only the second Indian woman after Koneru Humpy in 2011 to qualify for the World Championship match. Later this year, she will face China’s Ju Wenjun for the ultimate title.
Vaishali entered the tournament as a dark horse, the lowest-rated player in the eight-woman field. What followed was a display of nerve as much as skill. In a gruelling 14-round double round-robin, she found another gear late, recovering from a loss in the 12th round and beating Kateryna Lagno with white in the final round to win the tournament by half a point.
It was a victory that showed her toughest race was never just across the board, but against a narrative that had followed her for years.
The comparison was always inevitable.
Her younger brother, GM Praggnanandhaa, became a household name when he became the world’s youngest International Master. He then became the second-youngest Grandmaster in history in 2018 at just 12. Vaishali reached that same milestone five years later.
Even within Indian women’s chess, timelines were unforgiving. Koneru Humpy had become a Woman Grandmaster at 15 in 2002. By comparison, Vaishali’s WGM title in 2023, at 21, felt, unfairly, late.
While the spotlight burned brightly on Pragg, Vaishali worked in the softer glow of the background.
Yet, it was actually Vaishali who moved the first pawn in the family.
Her mother, Nagalakshmi, once famously recalled that she enrolled Vaishali in chess classes simply to wean her off television cartoons. A two-year-old Pragg would sit nearby, often pushing the pieces off the board while his sister practiced. Soon, the toddler was no longer disrupting the game. He was mastering it.
Both would go on to train under GM RB Ramesh and Woman Grandmaster Aarthie Ramaswamy in Chennai, eventually becoming part of the first batch at the WestBridge Anand Academy, mentored by the legendary Viswanathan Anand.
“They joined us young. At that time, she was the higher-rated player. Pragg was still 1700. She was 1900, something like that. She was the stronger player at that time,” GM Ramesh told IndiaToday.in on Wednesday, April 15 from Chennai.
“Both of them have similarities: both of them work hard, both of them don’t go to school regularly. They have been practising for more than 6-8 hours a day for so many years. Both can get into time trouble. But she is more aggressive. Pragg is more solid, professional. Vaishali is enterprising and aggressive with her approach.
“In between, Pragg overtook Vaishali and became the world’s youngest IM and, in a couple of years, the world’s youngest GM and so on. At that time, she felt a bit jumpy. She felt it.
“Suddenly, the limelight was on him. She felt it was a bit unfair. It did affect her for a couple of years. She overcame that and now they both take pride in each other’s performance,” he said.
In Cyprus, the story found its most human moment.
It had been a difficult week for Praggnanandhaa. He entered the Open Candidates as one of the favourites, with hopes of setting up an all-Indian World Championship clash against reigning champion D Gukesh later this year. But he lost momentum at the wrong time and finished seventh.
And yet, when it mattered most, he was there.
As Vaishali walked out of the playing hall after the final round, her mother and brother were waiting. In a poignant moment, they embraced her as she emerged as the new challenger for the world title.
Then came a moment that revealed their equation more than any statistic could.
In a conversation with IM Sagar Shah for ChessBase India, Vaishali made sure her brother’s role did not go unnoticed. He tried, as always, to deflect. She did not let him.
“He was very motivating. There were some tense moments in the last few days. He was there to support me. He was also having a tough event. But he was always there to support me, cheer me up. Last night, we discussed a couple of things about what I wanted to do in the last round,” Vaishali said.
The victory in Cyprus was the outcome of years that rarely looked this certain.
Vaishali has seen ups and downs aplenty in her career, but the road to the Candidates brought clarity. Her win at the Grand Swiss last year, a tournament she was unsure of entering, proved decisive.
“Extremely proud. It has been decades of effort from Vaishali. She has been playing chess for more than 15 years. She is now one step closer to becoming a world champion. Really happy she has come this far,” Ramesh said.
Once she punched her ticket to the Candidates last year, the technical preparation was augmented by a rigorous mental overhaul.
“She had many training camps. We don’t want to reveal her team because the world championships are there. She has been doing yoga, meditation quite regularly for many months now. That’s also calming her nerves. In all these crucial moments, especially to win in the last round, in a must-win situation, is not easy. It was all about training and improving her strength,” Ramesh said.
The tournament demanded everything she had built.
Vaishali began on a wobbly note before finding her rhythm in the second half. By Round 12, she was the sole leader, a position she had not expected to occupy.
Then came the setback. A loss with the white pieces to Zhu Jiner threatened to undo her work.
But this time, she held.
“After having a one-point lead, and then losing a game, it would have affected many players. But then she kept her nerves and won the tournament. I am really happy,” Ramesh said.
Sometimes, it came down to something as simple as a WhatsApp message.
“I told her, ‘These things can happen. Try to think of it like you made two draws, instead of thinking you lost today. You are still in the lead with a couple of rounds to go.’ And making two draws is not a bad thing, you are losing the lead,” Ramesh said.
Vaishali reset.
She even found the composure to joke about the setback.
“Having this one-point lead towards the end, I didn’t expect that at all in this tournament. It put pressure on me before playing Zhu Jiner. But after I lost that game, I felt like, ‘Okay, we are back to normal.’ Luckily, we had a rest day after that. It was good for me to reset and plan for the last two rounds,” she said.
Part of this reset involved a fundamental lifestyle change. Ramesh insisted on a strict sleep schedule and morning yoga to ensure she didn't carry "negative baggage" into the next day.
“I have been telling her to sleep early. I told her that even if she loses a game, she has to sleep well. Because, for many players, this is a serious problem, it becomes almost impossible to sleep when you lose. But I suggested that she needed to sleep, even if it’s a painful loss, and move on. And recently, I believe she has been doing that,” Ramesh said.
“Also, she has been waking up early and doing yoga. Because if you don’t sleep well, you wake up late and it’s almost afternoon already. But now she has made it a point she gets up early in the morning and does yoga. This kind of self-discipline is a positive change.
To keep the atmosphere light, the coaches sent 19-year-old GM Pranesh as her second. Pranesh played the role of the oblivious teenager perfectly.
“Having Pranesh as my second was Ramesh sir and Aarthi ma’am’s idea,” Vaishali told ChessBase India.
"He is a nice and fun person to be around. The idea was for him to keep it light because there were a lot of tense and tight moments throughout the competition.
“Whenever I had a tough match and went to his room, he was like, ‘It’s okay akka, don’t worry.’ He was very supportive. We played a lot of table tennis and paddle. Of course, some blitz also.
“He would be waiting for the rest day. After every rest day, he would be like, ‘Oh, when is the next rest day?’.”
It takes more than talent to reach the top. It takes time, resilience and the ability to step out of narratives that are written for you before you can write your own.For Vaishali, that meant growing up alongside brilliance without being defined by it. It meant absorbing comparisons without being consumed by them.
The World Championship match against Ju Wenjun will test her again. In a quiet full-circle moment, Vaishali hinted that Praggnanandhaa could stand in her corner as a second at the World Championship.
But Cyprus has already done something more lasting.
Rameshbabu Vaishali will no longer be introduced as someone else’s sister.
She will be introduced as the challenger for the world title.
For Vaishali, that meant growing up alongside brilliance without being defined by it. It meant absorbing comparisons without being consumed by them.
The World Championship match against Ju Wenjun will test her again. In a quiet full-circle moment, Vaishali hinted that Praggnanandhaa could stand in her corner as a second at the World Championship.
But Cyprus has already done something more lasting.
Rameshbabu Vaishali will no longer be introduced as someone else’s sister.
She will be introduced as the challenger for the world title.
Source: India Today