Vaishali Rameshbabu had just been knocked out of the World Cup in July and returned home, falling ill immediately. She would miss out on tournaments for two months, trying to recoup, and discover a broader life beyond chess, which in fact helped her to fall in love with chess again, and this time feel “sorta, kinda something like happy.” India’s brand new challenger for the Women’s Chess World Championships after winning Candidates at Cyprus, recalled how the lowest point brought on enduring joy for the game thereafter.
The year was 2023-24 – and it had been a rollercoaster, she told Chess.com two years ago. “It was just a food poisoning. But it was bad for me. In a way it was good. I took a break from the game, to take some positives from it. But I had to miss some tournaments,” she revealed to the website.
The lead-up she told Chess.com had been filled with losses. “Last year was a rollercoaster. Wijk an Zee was ok. Didn’t play well in Grand Prix, lost my rating so much. Fell sick in between and I had to withdraw from some tournaments. It was really tough for me at that point,” she would say.
Becoming Grandmaster had been a childhood goal. “I played World Cup in July. Got knocked out and came back. And I fell sick. It was so bad that I had to cancel few tournaments. I could not play World Teams, Kolkata Rapid Blitz. I cancelled back to back tournaments,” she would narrate.
It was heading home and being away from the crucible of chess that actually proved beneficial. “I was home for two months. In that period I sort of – I was seeing life in a different way. In a way I was becoming happy kinda, sort of, I was seeing different things,” she told chess.com. It helped her fall for chess all over again, after the fun of it had gone missing due to the pressure of results.
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“Chess-wise I was just happy to play tournaments after a long break. My first tournament was Asian Games where we won silver for India. And next day I flew to Qatar. And everything went well. And my approach to the game changed. I was happy playing the game,” she said. The Grand Swiss title and qualifying for her first Candidates would follow.
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“I started playing chess as a kid because I used to enjoy chess. But somehow in last few years I had ended up playing for results, to complete GM title, going behind rating, norms. And once I got back the joy of playing chess, results started coming. Not for results or goals, but just playing the game as I used to when I was a kid,” she recalled in 2024 of a predicament all chess prodigies face at one point or another. Dreams are young and relentless, maturity takes its time.
“To become GM and Women’s World champion was always in my head. I don’t want to take pressure, but the tournament is always full of pressure,” she explained to Chess.com.
ALSO READ | Vaishali Rameshbabu, the chess OG of her family, reclaims spotlight in Cyprus by winning Candidates
Losses would take their toll. “Sometimes go for a walk alone, watch comedy movies, sometimes can’t sleep whole night. I’m sensitive to losses. There are some games where I don’t get sleep for days,” she said of the brutal struggle to shrug off defeats.
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She had subsequently figured mind flowcharts, training herself to think in a particular way. Speaking to FIDE ahead of the 2024 Candidates, Vaishali had said, “Best advice I got was to enjoy whatever I do and rest is to do the job well on your part, and accept whatever it gives. It’s difficult sometimes. The stress takes you. But every time you feel stressed you know it’s time to take a pause for a minute and look back at how you have come so far, to think for some time and you can start fresh.”
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Back then, Vaishali had told FIDE she wanted to become World Champion and cross 2600 in ELO, though that figure could be pegged higher now.
Speaking of her preparation, Vaishali had told FIDE in 2024, that she preferred the old-fashioned book solving. “I just do regular solving positions online. Some books have been my routine since childhood. I just love to solve tactical puzzles. Nothing in particular but ‘Middle Game Combinations’ is one book. I’ve solved many tactics in many books.
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How did she stay calm in the game? “To stay calm in a game, I just take it very slowly,” she would say. At this Candidates, just like Javokhir Sindarov, Vaishali made good use of time on the opponents’ clock, as she brought down Tan Zhongyi, Zhu Jinner and finally Bibisara Assaubayeva.
