Gukesh: ‘Always amazed at the character Vaishali akka shows at events’ | Chess News
3 min readMay 1, 2026 08:18 AM IST World champion D Gukesh had praised the character of Vaishali Rameshbabu, who earlier this month, won the Women’s Candidates tournament and will also fight for the Women’s World Championship. This means that while Gukesh defends his crown against Javokhir Sindarov, Vaishali will try to topple Ju Wenjun. Gukesh experienced a rollercoaster of emotions at the previous Candidates tournament in Toronto where he won despite being a first-timer. Vaishali was also playing in her first Candidates that year, and after losing four games in a row, bounced back by winning her last five games on the trot, which almost got her the title. Two years later, in Cyprus, Vaishali managed to survive her own rollercoaster journey to secure the title. Vaishali thus became only the second woman from India to earn a shot at the Women’s World Chess Championship after Koneru Humpy. “I was following her match in the last round of the Candidates. The open section was already done, so I was following Vaishali akka’s game. I …
