R Vaishali tried her best but came up second best in the semi-finals of the World Blitz Chess Championship against eventual winner Ju Wenjun of China. The Indian youngster was rewarded for her efforts in New York with a bronze medal nonetheless and her podium finish capped a phenomenal year for Indian chess players.
In an unusual scenario in the open section, Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi shared the title. Carlsen won the first two games in the final and looked like running away with the title before Nepomniachtchi won the last two games to draw level. The players remained equal after three rounds of tie-break before they agreed to split the spoils.
Vaishali defeated Zhu Jiner of China 2.5-1.5 in the quarter-final. The topper of the league standings before entering the knockout stage, Vaishali was clearly the superior player in this match. The situation changed in the semi-finals against the higher-rated Ju. The first game was drawn, but the Chinese won the next two to seal the deal, which made the last game inconsequential.
This was still a massive effort from Vaishali, which came after Koneru Humpy’s title-winning feat in the rapid section. Indians are world beaters in the classical format and they swept everything on offer in 2024, including D Gukesh’s world championship win in December. But the story was different when it came to speed chess, namely rapid and blitz.
Other than Viswanathan Anand and Humpy, Indians had not made a mark in the shorter formats. Even in this edition of the World Rapid and Blitz Championship in New York, players from the country failed to make a mark in the open section. Arjun Erigaisi finished fifth and there were no other Indians in the top 20. Humpy and Vaishali changed the script in the women’s competition.
Other than the erstwhile Soviet Union, few countries dominated chess in a calendar year like the Indians in 2024. They were on the podium in every single major event, winning the top prize in most of those. Overshadowed by the rapid rise of her younger brother R Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali ended the year on a high and reconfirmed that Indian chess players are what the world looks up to.
This will raise expectations. People will say that bronze is not enough because we are getting used to gold. Realistically, that doesn’t happen all the time. It’s the consistency that matters. Nothing better if there are multiple names making headlines. Indian chess has a number of them at the moment. And most of them are below 25. This might just be the beginning of a new era in chess history.