Vaishali Rameshbabu vs Kateryna Lagno (Photo: Niki Riga) NEW DELHI: There is a saying. In English it sounds like: “Fortune favors the bold”. Let’s start with the “happiness” part. Twenty-four-year-old Vaishali Rameshbabu’s victory in the game on Wednesday was not enough to make her the champion. She had the same 7.5/14 points as Bibisara Assaubayeva who took on Vaishali’s compatriot Divya Deshmukh at the Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort in Cyprus. And Divya did not disappoint, holding the co-leader in a stalemate.The “brave” part is where things get interesting. When playing white pieces in pursuit of an outcome, players often get greedy and make more adventurous, attacking moves on the board, weakening their defenses. Vaishali had white pieces. She faced Russia’s Kateryna Lagno, a mother of four and quite brilliant at keeping a poker face on the table. Vaishali had to be brave to overcome the challenge of the veteran and she did it with clinical precision that was at stake.
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Harika Dronavalli Exclusive: Inside Grenke’s #chess win, viral no-handshake incident and moreWith this win, Vaishali became the first Indian woman to win the Candidates tournament. While the legendary Koneru Humpy has previously reached the final of the World Championships, she did so mainly through the knockout system during a break in the Women’s Candidates format.For a player who started the tournament with a preliminary streak of four draws and then a defeat in the fifth round, her late comeback was nothing short of heroic.She is now the second Indian ever to challenge for the World Championship and is set to take on China’s Ju Wenjun later this year. But did she beat the thirty-six-year-old?Imprisoning the “Dragon” in Vaishali’s way“Vaishali’s last match against Lagno was a very well played, smooth game in which she was in a strong position throughout,” Thipsay told TimesofIndia.com after the match. “It’s always a tough thing for the lowest-ranked player in a tournament to come out on top. Sometimes players aren’t able to make bold decisions, but that didn’t happen with Vaishali.”The battle lines were drawn early as Lagno opted for a sharp Dragon Variation of the Sicilian defenses. Vaishali countered with her preferred Yugoslavian attack, a system widely considered to be the most effective dragon antidote. “She started with the long castle on the ninth move recently popularized by Magnus Carlsen, followed by the standard 11. Bc4,” explained Thipsay. “Lagno chose a very sharp line and I have to appreciate that she didn’t play for a draw. She played an ambitious line with 11… Be6 after 32 minutes of thinking, but it didn’t turn out well.”With a move of 16, Vaishali secured a commanding position. Although Lagno introduced a novelty with 16… Bxb3, Thipsay pointed out that this was a strategic mistake. “It’s the typical mistake that Bobby Fischer once said leads to a forced loss for Black. Vaishali’s only inaccuracy here is that she caught the 17th axb3 instead of cxb3, momentarily reducing the command lead to a slight advantage.”However, the Russian veteran was unable to get hold of the lifeline. On move 18, Lagno played e5 to avoid a bishop exchange, a move Thipsay called a “decisive mistake”.“Had she changed the shooter, chances of ending the rook, pawn down, could have been drawn,” he told the site. “Instead, Lagno decided to keep the bishop. While Lagno’s bishop on g7 did nothing during the game, Vaishali’s bishop on c3 was active and the game was won in a powerful way.” When Lagno finally resigned on turn 48, the material imbalance between the players was jaw-dropping. Vaishali held a queen and two rooks against Lagna’s lone queen and bishop.Since 2016, the Women’s World Cup has been an all-China affair. Vaishali’s qualification ensures that a non-Chinese player will compete for the crown for the first time in ten years.However, the parallels with the 2024 cycle are hard to ignore. “Let’s see if Vaishali is able to repeat what Gukesh did,” Thipsay remarked with a smile. “Gukesh defeated China’s world champion Ding Liren as a challenger in December 2024. In 2026, we can experience the same when Vaishali defeats Ju Wenjun.”
