Vaishali wins FIDE Grand Swiss: If 2024 belonged to Indian men’s chess players, 2025 is all about the ‘Queens’

Indian chess rose to new heights in 2024, thanks mainly to D Gukesh’s historic triumphs in the FIDE World Championship and Candidates as well as the golden sweep at the Chess Olympiad. The progress hasn’t stopped this year either, with the country continuing to make waves in the sport.

Like 2024, it’s the young brigade that has been headlining India’s success. The only difference between the two years, though, is the fact that it’s the ‘Queens’ who have been leading the way in 2025. And the spotlight currently is on two individuals – Divya Deshmukh and R Vaishali.

Deshmukh had her moment in the sun during the FIDE Women’s World Cup in July, which had four Indians among the quarter-finalists as well as an all-Indian final. Deshmukh would go on to defeat veteran star Koneru Humpy to not only pull off the biggest win of her career, but also earn her Grandmaster title without having to go through all three norms.

Vaishali shines bright in Samarkand

And when it came to the FIDE Grand Swiss – the fourth edition in the ‘Open’ category as well as the third for ‘Women’ – the spotlight remained on Deshmukh, who was one of two female players to earn a wildcard entry into the former. As well as on Indian No 1 R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi, both of whom were aiming to seal their place in Candidates 2026, and on reigning world champion D Gukesh.

One could therefore say that Vaishali somewhat slipped under the radar after her arrival in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand, where the event got underway on 3 September and concluded on Monday. Vaishali had previously won the tournament in 2023, but that achievement had come at a time when Indian chess wasn’t quite part of the Indian sporting mainstream as it is today, and did not get as much coverage.

And in the time that has passed since, it’s her younger brother ‘Pragg’ who has been the cynosure of all eyes in Indian chess, especially with his breakthrough run this year, which included winning the prestigious Tata Steel Chess.

While Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa’s campaign went off the rails after a positive start and Deshmukh largely had a start-stop campaign, it was Vaishali who made heads turn with her consistency. The 24-year-old began her campaign with a hat-trick of wins. And after playing out a couple of draws, including against veteran Russian GM Kateryna Lagno, she returned to winning ways with a couple of more wins.

An improved mindset

By the seventh round, she had five wins and two draws to her name and had stamped her authority as a front-runner for a second consecutive title. She did encounter a setback in the form of an eight-round loss against Kazakhstani GM Bibisara Assaubayeva, losing in 39 moves while playing as black.

Vaishali, however, did not let the defeat affect her mindset and ensured she finished in the joint-lead with draws against China’s Yuxin Song and Tan Zhongyi and a victory over  Ukraine’s Maria Muzychuk in the last three rounds. She was tied for the top spot with Lagno, but beat the 35-year-old to the title in the tie-breaks – becoming the first player, male or female, to win back-to-back Grand Swiss titles in the process.

🏆🇮🇳 From 2023 to 2025 — Vaishali Rameshbabu (@chessvaishali) has done it again! Back-to-back champion of the Women’s #FIDEGrandSwiss. ✨♟️

📷 Anna Shtourman, Michal Walusza / FIDE pic.twitter.com/OsmhTlByVj

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) September 16, 2025

The ‘Open’ section witnessed a game of musical chairs for the top spot, where the likes of Parham Maghsoodloo, Matthias Bluebaum and Alireza Firouzja were in the lead before Dutch GM Anish Giri surged ahead and took the title.

The situation, however, couldn’t have been more different in the women’s section, where Vaishali remained either in the joint/sole lead or in the top two throughout the course of the tournament and walked away as the deserved winner.

What makes this victory even more special, besides the fact that she will be making a second consecutive appearance in the Women’s Candidates, is that it comes on the back of a horrid run in the Chennai Grand Masters last month.

Competing in the Challengers section, Vaishali began her journey with a couple of draws, only for her campaign to fall apart with seven consecutive defeats, including against senior GM Harika Dronavalli. Such a run not only provides one’s critics plenty of ammunition to target with, but it can also cause a large dent in a player’s confidence, and recovering from such a setback is easier said than done.

‘I am unstoppable’

Reflecting on her run in the last couple of months, Vaishali heaved a sigh of relief that she did not crumble after her defeat against Bibisara in Samarkand.

“(I had) A lot of experience in the last two years, many tough tournaments, even for example in the Candidates (2024) I lost four games in a row, there were many tough moments like that that made me stronger as a player and as a person,” Vaishali told FIDE in a chat after being crowned Women’s Grand Swiss champion for the second consecutive time.

“In my previous tournament at Chennai GM I lost seven games, I lost one week in a row, I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, then sometimes when I win, I am unstoppable.

“…actually when I lost to Bibisara (Assaubayeva from Kazakhstan) I am happy I did not collapse, I drew the next game and kind of settled in,” she added.

After the landmark moment in the Women’s World Cup, where Indians accounted for half of the quarter-finalists and both finalists, chess is set to witness another historic first in next year’s Candidates.

Indians, after all, were not part of the Women’s Candidates from the inaugural edition in 1952 up until 2019 – when the tournament returned to action after a 22-year hiatus. Koneru Humpy, who remains among the top players in the world at the age of 38, had ended that drought in the 2022-23 edition by becoming the first Indian to compete in the tournament that decides the challenger for the Women’s World Championship.

The progress continued last year when Vaishali joined Humpy, with the eight-player lineup including two Indians and as many Chinese and Russian players.

And for the first time in the history of the tournament, the Women’s Candidates could feature an Indian-majority lineup next year with Deshmukh the latest inclusion in addition to Humpy and Vaishali – depending, of course, on the player who clinches the eighth and final spot in the qualification system.

Another year, another feather in the cap for Indian chess, this time led by its ‘Queens’.

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