R Vaishali experienced a dramatic final day at the FIDE Women's Candidates 2026 on Wednesday. The Indian grandmaster became the first woman from the country to win the said tournament, as she defeated Kateryna Lagno in the final round to create history. She will now battle against Ju Wenjun for the Women’s World Championship crown.
Vaishali is the second Indian woman to fight for the Women’s World Championship title and the first after 15 years. Koneru Humpy was the first Indian woman to do so, as she had challenged Hou Yifan for the women’s crown at Albania’s Tirana 15 years ago in 2011. The triumph at the Candidates is the third big tournament Vaishali has won in the last three years. The 24-year-old won the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament twice and was also the part of the Women’s Olympiad triumph in 2024.
Vaishali's stunning resurgence in second half
Notably, Vaishali was in the last spot after five rounds along with Divya Deshmukh and Tan Zhongyi. However, she turned things around in dramatic fashion since then and got a shot at the top of the standings. On the contrary, both Divya and Tan finished the event as the bottom two.
Even two years ago at the Candidates in Toronto, Vaishali had staged a similar comeback. She had lost four games in a row and was rooted to the bottom after nine rounds. However, she had then bounced back by winning her final five games in a row and the winning run almost saw her winning the tournament.
Interestingly, not many had termed her as the favourite ahead of the Candidates, with the Indian legend and five-time world champion, Viswanathan Anand, also naming her as one of the three dark horses in the tournament. Her brother R Praggnaanandha was termed as the favourite by many but he finished the tournament in the seventh spot, winning just one game out of 14.
R Vaishali reflected on the tough times after winning the Candidates and how she fought back. "The last two years have not been the best for me. I dropped a lot of rating. Except for one tournament, everything was going wrong for me. But I knew at my best, I can fight with all of them on equal terms," she said at the press conference.
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