Vaishali Rameshbabu's resilience at the Candidates won her a seat at the chess World Championship
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In the next round, she went down to Zhu Jiner and fell back into joint lead with the Chinese GM.“When I lost to Zhu Jiner I felt, ‘OK, we’re back to normal now.’ And the last two days I was just trying to focus on my game and give my best, because that’s under my control,” the 24-year-old said during the official post-tournament press-conference.Taking sole lead after the 11th round had come with added weight of pressure and Vaishali hasn’t always been comfortable with being the front runner. Not because of a lack of ambition.
But she would rather be the hunter than the hunted.She made the leap in the final round, with six players still mathematically in with a chance to win. Bibisara Assaubayeva and Vaishali, who started the final round on 7.5 points each, had the best chance.
While Assaubayeva was held to a draw by India’s Divya Deshmukh, Vaishali played one of her best games of the tournament to beat Kateryna Lagno and become the first Indian woman to win the Candidates.It secured her the golden ticket to the World Championship match against title holder Ju Wenjun later this year. Vaishali will become only the second Indian, after Koneru Humpy in
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