IMAGE: (Left to right:) Champion Ju Wenjun, bronze winner Kateryna Lagno, silver medallist Lei Tingjie and bronze winner Rameshbabu Vaishali. Photograph: Lennart Ootes/FIDE
India’s Rameshbabu Vaishali clinched a bronze medal in the women’s section of the World Blitz Championship, capping another strong performance by the country’s chess players after stalwart Koneru Humpy’s title-winning show in the rapid event in New York.
Vaishali defeated China’s Zhu Jiner 2.5-1.5 in the quarter-finals before losing to another Chinese opponent Ju Wenjun 0.5-2.5 in the semi-finals.
In an event completely dominated by the Chinese, Ju Wenjun went on to snare the World title, defeating compatriot Lei Tingjie 3.5-2.5.
Five-time World champion and International Chess Federation (FIDE) vice-president Viswanathan Anand congratulated Vaishali for her efforts, saying it was a great way to end the year.
“Congratulations to Vaishali for taking bronze. Her qualification was truly a power-packed performance. Our Waca Chess mentee (WestBridge Anand Chess Academy) has done us proud,” Anand wrote on ‘X’.
“We are so happy to be supporting her and her chess. What a way to wrap up 2024. In 2021, we thought we would get stronger chess players but here we have it a World Champion (Humpy) and a Bronze medallist (Vaishali)!” he wrote.
In the ‘Open’ section, world number one Magnus Carlsen and Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi shared the Blitz title after three sudden-death games failed to produce a winner. This was the first time that the title was awarded to two players after Carlsen asked whether it could be shared given the deadlock.
“We reached a point where it had been a long day. We played many games, we had three draws and I felt that I could keep playing. But it was a nice solution to share the win, it was a good way to end it,” said Carlsen.
