Candidates Chess: Vaishali inches closer to world championship match

Chennai, India’s chess capital, could well host the world championship match but in the women’s version. Here’s how. With three rounds remaining, if R Vaishali manages to hold on to her lead in the ongoing Candidates or wins the event, via tiebreak, the Chennai girl gets a chance to challenge women’s world champion Ju Wenjun of China.On Saturday, Vaishali was quick to spot Aleksandra Goryachkina’s folly and capitalised on the Russian’s generosity to score a pivotal win in the 11th round of the Women’s Candidates in Cyprus. The full point took the Indian — the lowest rated player in the eight-player field with Elo rating of 2470 and women’s world ranking of 19 — to seven points. It helped her retain the lead after Zhu Jiner and Anna Muzychuk (both at 6 points) drew with Divya Deshmukh and Kateryna Lagno respectively. “Some luck here and there also helped,” Vaishali told Chess24 youtube broadcast, explaining her five points in last six rounds, with four wins, and her impressive strike rate at the Candidates. She had scored six wins in the last Candidates too but it came with five defeats. In this edition, she has lost only one game so far.Before the Candidates started, there was a talk of Vaishali's brother R Praggnanandhaa winning the Open version and the possibility of him challenging D Gukesh for the world crown at home for both players in Tamil Nadu.It looks like it could be the sister’s turn instead. Goyrachkina had missed a win in rook ending, with extra pawn, against Divya Deshmukh in the third round match.