- R Vaishali from India is on her way to the 2026 FIDE Women Candidates tournament as the third Indian to qualify
- Vaishali defended her FIDE Grand Swiss title in Samarkand, Uzbekistan
In 2025 Indian chess Grandmaster R Vaishali remained FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss champion in 2025 and entered the 2026 FIDE Women Candidates Tournament.
She took part in the tournament and scored 8 out of 11 rounds to end the experience with a draw with Tan Zhongyi of China.
Through this, she was only the third Indian woman to be eligible to this event, along with Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh.
Koneru and Divya qualified through participation in the FIDE Women world cup and Vaishali through acquiring points in the Grand Swiss.
According to Vaishali, she experienced a tough period at the Chennai Grand Masters losing seven games consecutively.
She stated that this difficult stretch pushed her to change the way she prepared substantially, which also influenced her success in the Grand Swiss.
This will be Vaishali's second occasion at the Women's Candidates Tournament, being one of the more stable amongst the Indian players who play in international chess.
She said that she hasn’t planned her next tournaments and will consider which tournaments to play in due course. With her qualification, India is guaranteed at least three players in the 2026 Candidates Tournament, showing the increasing strength of Indian women's chess.
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