Sibling success
R. PRAGGNANANDHAA
AGE: SCHOOL:
R. B. RAMESH
(MENTOR)
R. Vaishali and her younger brother R. Praggnanandhaa have achieved significant success at a pretty young age. While Pragg, as he is affectionately called by his parents, became the world’s second youngest chess grandmaster at 12 years, 10 months and 13 days in June 201■, Vaishali became a woman GM just two months later at age 17.
THE BEGINNING
Vaishali is talented in both chess and drawing. When her parents enrolled her in the Bloom Chess Academy when she was five years, she showed her skills in the game by winning tournament after tournament, inlcuding gold medals at the national under11, 13 and 15 championships. In fact, she was one of the recipients of the National Child Award for Exceptional Chess 2015, presented to her by then president Pranab Mukherjee.
Vaishali acquired her first woman international master norm in Bangkok in April 2015 and a second one at the KIIT Festival in Bhubaneswar the same year. She won her third and final norm in Kolkata at the National ‘A’ Championship in November 2015.
R. VAISHALI
AGE: SCHOOL:
While her quest for an international masters title took less than a year, Vaishali took a bit more time to become a woman GM, needing 15 months. But the Chennai girl remained steadfast. Her best moment came when she won the Asian Continental Blitz Chess Championship in Chengdu, China, last year.
When Vaishali was selected for the Asian Youth Championships in 2011 held in the Philippines, she had no sponsor. Since the thirdplaced girl in the national under10 championship pulled out, Vaishali, who had finished fourth in the event, was asked to join the team. With government rules preventing Vaishali from being sponsored by it as she had finished fourth in the nationals – the government sponsors only the top three – it became tough for Vaishali’s parents. With no support, they had to spend around Rs. 90,000 of their own money. “It was quite a difficult time for us and that was the first time Vaishali was travelling abroad,” recalled Ramesh Babu, her father.
Praggnanandhaa, meanwhile, became the country's youngest IM at 10 years and