22-two-year-old Vaishali Rameshbabu is somewhat annoyed at how long it’s taking her to become a Grandmaster (GM), the highest title offered to players by world chess body, Fide. It is a dream she has long nurtured, and a title she has watched her younger brother, Praggnanandhaa, assume at just 12 years and 7 months of age.
“Somehow for me, it’s been a hurdle,” she says.
India has not had a new female GM since 2011, and only two out of the country’s existing 82 Grandmasters are women.
Vaishali (Elo 2431) earned her first GM-norm in 2019 and the second in May 2022. She still needs to complete a third norm and cross 2500 Elo rating. “Now that I see my brother’s journey closely, I know that becoming a GM is just the first step. It’s been hard for me, balancing chess with academics and I haven’t always made the most of the chances that have come my way.”
Much like her, 20-year-old Vantika Agrawal (Elo 2428) believes her GM goal has suffered due to academic demands. Now that she’s finally done with college and studying at airports between tournaments, she wants to go the whole hog.
India’s two female GMs Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli are ranked No 5 and No 12 respectively in the world among women. Humpy became the country’s first female GM in 2002, with Harika joining her in 2011. The total number of India’s GMs was 25 then. Today, that number has more than tripled.
The next highest-ranked Indian is Vaishali (No 35), followed by Vantika (No 37). They’re both Women Grandmasters (WGM). One spot below Vantika is up-and-coming 16-year-old Savitha Shri B (Elo 2426), who too turned WGM this year.
The Elo rating system is essentially a metric of playing strength and every title necessitates the completion of norms – a certain level of performance in tournaments that count towards title requirement. After GM, the second-highest title is International Master (IM), which requires players to cross 2400 Elo and three IM norms. It is followed by the WGM title, which has three WGM norms and breaching 2300 Elo among its criteria.
Two years younger than Vaishali, Vantika hopes to be able to throw in all she can – private Super GM lessons and several open event appearances, to get stronger. “If all female players start playing open tournaments, we’ll grow stronger much faster,” she says.
The competition structure of chess – open tournaments – for players of both genders, existing alongside women-only tournaments has been somewhat contentious. The argument against it has usually been to either have open tournaments or separate men’s and women’s tournaments. World No 1 Magnus Carlsen has spoken in favour of the latter system in the past.
“If a Gukesh or Praggnanandhaa were asked to play only category events till they turned 20, their strength would drastically drop. Similarly, women largely playing women-only tournaments can end up limiting their growth. Players like Judit (Polgar), Hou (Yifan) and Humpy became some of the strongest female players in chess history by focusing on open events,” says GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, “It’s a tricky problem with no easy solutions. If we do away with women’s events completely and conduct only open events, female players will certainly get phenomenally stronger down the line. But the immediate fallout can be really tough – in terms of visibility, prize money and sustenance of women players.”
In terms of numbers, the pool of women in chess is a lot smaller than men and they often have unhelpful social conditioning and episodes of harassment to contend with. “Chess societies haven’t been very kind to women over the years. Certainly, there needs to be a bit of change in culture,” Carlsen told The Guardian in a 2020 interview. Earlier this year, his older sister Ellen opened up about being harassed as a minor by an older chess player. She quit the sport in her mid-20s.
While male players usually travel alone or in groups for tournaments, young female players are often accompanied by a parent, making it doubly expensive. Vantika usually has her mother by her side during travels and says she understands why some of her peers find it hard to afford enough tournaments. Her former trainer, GM Pravin Thipsay, sees her and a few others join the tiny female GM club in India soon.
“Often times, it’s society that sets targets. Sponsors can think it’s better to support more female players turn WGMs than, say, backing a few and seeing them through to GM titles,” says Thipsay.
Two decades ago, even being the country’s only female GM wasn’t enough for Humpy to not lose a sponsor. Her sponsorship was terminated without notice and a male cricketer was roped in as brand ambassador.
For Tania Sachdev, it’s been seven years since she picked up her second GM norm at the Reykjavik Open. She has since moved on to commentary roles, while occasionally playing tournaments. “I won’t lie, becoming GM is a big dream of mine. But right now, where I am in my career, I really don’t see it as something that will make or break me,” she says, “The broader idea has to be to make chess a safe and welcoming space for young girls so more of them play the sport and fewer drop out. So many things have to come together to even become a GM – you need to start early and have the right kind of support. For women, the challenges are just so much more.”
In the early 2000s, Vijaylakshmi Subbaraman came really close to becoming a GM – completing three GM norms and touching an Elo of 2498 on the live rating list, before she dropped off. In a 2017 interview to Chessbase India, she attributed it to events in her personal life – the birth of her son and death of her father. “Sometimes when you see your old games you feel really bad,” she said, “I believe I had the game to be GM.”
Harika believes perception plays a role and sees India adding female GM numbers soon. “When I started, becoming a WGM was a big deal. Before that it was probably just about winning nationals and participating in Olympiads. We became GMs and won world medals. That’s where the present generation needs to start. Also, perceptions have to change. You need higher goals and ambitions.”
Right now, some of the world’s most talked about chess talents are India’s young male players – Gukesh D, Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa.
Vaishali shares a room with one of them at home and talks about gleaning insights from her 2690 Elo sibling.
Vaishali was the first in her family to play chess. “My parents only bought my brother (Praggnanandhaa) a board so he would stop bothering me,” she laughs. “When I play stronger opponents, he’s a huge help. He’s able to guess their tactics and openings against me. As siblings we’re of course fiercely competitive with each other, but he’s had such an inspiring journey. It’s my turn to do something special now. Something that will make young girls taking up chess go, ‘wow we too can do this’.
“I want to start by becoming GM.”