Woman Grandmaster (WGM) M R Vaishali, who is the elder sister of India’s latest chess sensation R Praggnanandhaa, was on Tuesday ruled out of the upcoming Tata Steel Chess India championship slated to be held here from Thursday.
Vaishali, who played a key role towards Praggnanandhaa becoming the youngest World Cup runner-up at 18, will be replaced by WGM Divya Deshmukh, a former national champion and member of the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad team in 2020.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, Vaishali R won’t be able to participate, but we’re excited to welcome Divya Deshmukh to the tournament! Let’s cheer for Divya,” the organisers said.
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Vaishali was initially named in the star-studded women’s lineup that boasts the Chinese duo of Wenjun Ju -- the reigning World champion -- and runner-up Tingjie Lei.
There is however no change to the women’s field that also includes Anna Ushenina of Ukraine, the winner of Tata Steel Chess India Rapid 2022 and Irina Krush, the only American woman GM.
The Indian lineup has Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Savitha Shri and Vantika Agarwal.
The Open category, which will begin on September 4, will be headlined by Praggnanandhaa, who will be joined by the trio of D Gukesh, Vidit Gujrathi, and Arjun Erigaisi who are fresh from their World Cup quarters appearances.
The overseas participants in the Open field will have Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, (World Blitz Champion 2021), Alexander Grischuk of Russia, Teymour Radjabov of Azerbaijan (World Cup Winner 2019), Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan (World Rapid Champion 2021) and Vincent Keymer of Germany (runner-up at World Rapid Championship).
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