Viswanathan Anand names Divya Deshmukh and Vaishali in dark horse category in tier list for Candidates tournament | Chess News
3 min readMar 26, 2026 05:26 PM IST Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand has picked Chinese grandmaster Zhu Jiner as the favourite to win the Women’s Candidates while mentioning Divya Deshmukh and Vaishali Rameshbabu as dark horses for the tournament. Anand made the pick while making a “tier list” for Chess.com India. The prediction came with a disclaimer: at the start of the conversation, Anand had said that he had found it difficult to pinpoint someone in the Women’s Candidates event who he thought was a clear favorite. He also said that he found it hard to select someone who he thought didn’t have a chance. The Tier List had all the eight players categorised into four groups: “Winner”, “Top 3”, “Dark Horse” and “Difficult”. The tier list was made by Anand before Humpy had pulled out of the Candidates tournament citing security concerns. Anand had put Humpy in the ‘Difficult’ category. Anand’s Tier List for Women’s Candidates: Winner: Zhu Jiner Top 3: Tan Zhongyi, Bibisara Assaubayeva and Aleksandra Goryachkina Dark Horse: Divya Deshmukh, Vaishali …
