India’s R Vaishali, on Friday, became only the third woman from the country achieve the title of a chess Grandmaster.
The 22-year-old, with her accomplishment, joined the elite club of Indian female Grandmasters headlined for so long by veterans Konreu Humpy and Harika Dronavalli.
While Humpy attained the feat way back in 2002 when she was just 15-year-old, Dronavalli entered the list more than a decade back in 2011.
Vaishali, who had earlier qualified for the 2024 Candidates Tournament after winning the women’s title at the Grand Swiss last month, attained the Grandmaster title after crossing the required 2500-rating barrier.
The Tamil Nadu lass, who had attained her third and final Grandmaster norm at the Qatar Masters earlier this year, attained the feat during the ongoing Llobregat Open in Spain. She is now the 84th Indian across genders to earn the Grandmaster title.
Vaishali’s feat means that she and her brother R Praggnanandhaa are the first sister-brother duo in history to attain the Grandmaster tag. The latter had attained his Grandmaster title back in 2018, aged 12.
Praggnanandhaa will also compete in the Candidates tournament at Toronto in April next year.