Vaishali, Rameshbabu

Born June 21, 2001 | Federation: India | Rating: 2443

Few cities have produced as many chess diamonds as Chennai, and Vaishali Rameshbabu is one of them. When she was seven years old, her parents enrolled her in chess and drawing classes at an academy near their place, with the mere purpose of reducing the amount of time that she spent watching TV. Then, she happened to go to a tournament where she received a trophy as the youngest participant, and that sparked a strong interest in her. Very soon, her youngest sibling, Praggnanandhaa R, who is four years younger, became a perfect partner for their games.

Vaishali developed very quickly, and in chess-crazy Chennai, she didn’t lack the opportunity to meet stronger players and participate in events. One of these opportunities happened in 2013 when Magnus Carlsen visited the city on an inspection trip for his match against Anand, and he accepted to offer a simul exhibition against 20 junior players of India. Vaishali forced Magnus to resign, and her play earned her the praise of the world’s number one.

That result was not a complete surprise. The previous year, Vaishali had already won the Girls' World Youth Chess Championship for Under-12s, a success she would repeat in 2015 in the U-14 category.

Vaishali and Praggnanandhaa are now one of the strongest couples of chess siblings in the world, together with the Muzychuk sisters and the Van Forest brothers. They were both part of the Indian team that won the Online Olympiad in 2020. More recently, they were part of the medal-winning teams at the Chess Olympiad in their hometown of Chennai and, to complete the proud moment, the sister-brother duo also won individual medals. Vaishali’s contribution to this success was decisive: defending the third board, she played all 11 rounds without rest, scoring 7½ points.


Nowadays, Vaishali balances his career as a chess player with her second year doing her Bachelor of Commerce studies, following the footsteps of his father, a banker. The college offered her a chance to be admitted even before she had gotten her 12th Standard results.