Vaishali's Grand Swiss Triumph: Chennai Debacle Fueled Candidate Qualification in Unlikely Twist

NEW DELHI: Grandmaster R Vaishali became the third Indian - after Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy - to qualify for the Women’s Candidates tournament 2026 on Monday, having won the Women’s Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for the second time in a row.Few weeks earlier, in her home city of Chennai, Vaishali had lived through a nightmare.Playing in the Challengers section of the Chennai Grand Masters, she lost seven games in a row and finished at the bottom of the standings.“It might sound funny, but after Chennai, I decided not to play Grand Swiss,” Vaishali told ChessBase India after her last round game in Samarkand. “I felt so bad after this Chennai performance because, okay, I lost like seven games in a row straight one week. And I mean it was very hard for me to recover.”At that point, it needed more than self-belief. Her brother, GM Praggnanandhaa, also played his part in convincing her to play in the Grand Swiss this year.“He has always been supportive, and this tournament also, he was helping me in a few games. My mom, too, was in the tournament hall all the time, following both of us. It’s not easy, but my parents have always believed in me.”GM Srinath Narayanan, tournament director of the Chennai Grand Masters, could not help but marvel at the turnaround.“Vaishali winning it second time in a row, that was incredibly nice to see,” he told TimesofIndia.com. “It was quite disheartening to see Vaishali had such a difficult time in Chennai. But I’m really glad that she turned it around. I’m glad that Pragg and her family convinced her. She always has the potential and the character to bounce back. And I guess the Chennai tournament also, in a certain way, brought her tie-break down.”That last comment may sound cryptic, but it points to the strangest subplot of Vaishali’s success in Uzbekistan.In the Grand Swiss, Vaishali finished tied on points with Kateryna Lagno, and the winner was decided by a technical tie-break: the average rating of opponents (ARO). Vaishali’s ARO was 2434, Lagno’s 2433.Here’s where fate intervened.Vaishali’s disastrous run in Chennai had cost her over 20 rating points. That meant when her opponents in Samarkand faced her, her rating was slightly lower, which in turn reduced their own AROs.By a quirk of tie-break math, this allowed Vaishali to just edge Lagno by a single point.“The difference in the tie-break average rating was just one point,” Srinath explained. “And Vaishali losing that rating recently (during the Chennai tournament) also helped her. So it’s a funny story, but I guess there’s always something positive to take from anything that happens.”Vaishali herself could only laugh about it later. “In a way, I think that is the reason I won this tournament. But two weeks back, it was so painful for me to deal with it. Now I feel every such experience only makes you stronger. So I’m also grateful for this experience.”