Two years ago, Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali made history as the first brother-sister pair to play the Candidates tournament. This time, one of them is coming to terms with a missed chance, while the other is in contention for first place.
In the all-Indian clash in Round 9, Vaishali outplayed Divya Deshmukh with the white pieces, moving up to 5.5 points and into a co-lead with Zhu Jiner. It brought up Vaishali’s third win in four games.
Time management has been one of Vaishali’s major troubles in this tournament. In Round 9, she faced none of it. She was the one blitzing out moves and calling the shots, without having to frantically look at the clock.
She played a brilliant exchange sacrifice (23. Rxd3), while Divya struggled to come up with answers or counterplay.
Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali are in a unique situation – as siblings competing at the highest level of chess. Having a strong player right across the room at home to bounce ideas off is a rare privilege.
However, those exchanges often come with caveats. “Sometimes you’re discussing ideas you want to play yourself,” Vaishali told Chess.com, breaking into a smile. “So, yeah, we’ll tell each other, ‘OK, this is my idea, you’re not going to play it.’…“We both have the tendency to work a lot, forgetting to take rest or breaks. So, we have to remind each other to do that.”
