Vaishali wins Women’s Candidates chess tournament

• Indian Grandmaster Vaishali Rameshbabu won the Women’s Candidates Tournament, defeating Kateryna Lagno to secure a World Championship showdown with reigning champion Ju Wenjun of China.

• Six players were in the race for first place, with Vaishali and Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Assaubayeva tied on 7.5 points. 

• Vaishali finished on 8.5 in the tournament which concluded in Paphos (Cyprus) on April 15.

• The 24-year-old grandmaster ended the 14-game tournament with five wins and two losses, finishing half a point ahead of Assaubayeva, who drew her final game against India’s Divya Deshmukh.

• Ju has held the title since 2018 after defeating fellow Chinese grandmaster Tan Zhongyi.

• Vaishali became only the third Indian woman Grandmaster after Koneru Humpy and D. Harika in December 2023.

• She earned her International Master title in 2021, before stepping into the spotlight at the Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram, Chennai in 2022, where she clinched a historic individual bronze and also helped the team secure a bronze.

• Vaishali won the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss for the second time in a row in 2025.

• She was honoured with the Arjuna Award in January 2024.

Candidates Tournament

• The Candidates Tournament is the final test that a player must pass to challenge the world champion in chess.

• It was established in 1950.

• This event emerged as a response to the need for a systematic approach to determine a world championship challenger. 

• Prior to 1950, contenders had to navigate a maze of negotiations directly with the champion, secure funding, and organise a match, a process that lacked structure and consistency.

• The turning point came in 1950 when Budapest hosted the inaugural Candidates Tournament, a 10-player double round-robin to select the Challenger for the then World Champion, Mikhail Botvinnik. 

• This tradition, set in Budapest, continued almost every third year until 1993, alternating between tournaments and matches. However, the early 1990s saw a disruption due to the split in the world championship structure.

• The Candidates Tournament returned to prominence in 2007 as part of the unified cycle, initially in the form of matches.

• The Candidates is a double round-robin tournament with the player finishing in first place getting the chance to challenge the world champion.

• Players qualify for the FIDE Candidates Tournament through a range of merit-based pathways, including performances at major FIDE events such as the World Cup, the Grand Swiss, the Grand Prix, and through the FIDE Circuit. Only the most consistent and successful players across the cycle earn a place in the tournament in men's and women's sections.

FIDE

• The International Chess Federation (Federation Internationale des Echecs) is the governing body of the sport of chess, and it regulates all international chess competitions. It was founded in 1924 in Paris. In 1999, FIDE was recognised by the International Olympic Committee as a global sporting organisation.

• The UN General Assembly has proclaimed July 20 as World Chess Day to mark the date of the establishment of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in Paris in 1924.

• FIDE awards several performance-based titles to chess players.

• They are Grandmaster (GM), International Master (IM), FIDE Master (FM), Candidate Master (CM), Woman Grandmaster (WGM), Woman International Master (WIM), Woman FIDE Master (WFM), Woman Candidate Master (WCM).