Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly, during an informal chat with The Telegraph on Monday, had said he had a strong feeling that an Indian will be in the top three either in the Open or the women’s section of the World Blitz Championship in New York.

“We have a very good chance,” he had said. Koneru Humpy had just won the world rapid title and Surya was bullish on another stellar performance in the blitz.

The 41-year-old city-based GM was spot-on.

Rameshbabu Vaishali, 23, clinched a bronze in the women’s section of the blitz section on Tuesday, capping another strong performance by the country’s chess players.

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-final.

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.

It was a good year for Vaishali. She became a Grandmaster in December 2023 but officially earned the title in 2024. Vaishali, whose younger brother Praggnanandhaa has also carved out a niche for himself, was the 84th Grandmaster of India. They are the first brother-sister GM in chess.

“A great feeling. She played very well,” father Rameshbabu told The Telegraph from Chennai on Wednesday night. “I have not been able to speak to her yet because of connectivity problems. They (Vaishali and Praggnanandhaa) were on their way to the airport,” the proud father said.

Five-time world champion and international chess federation (Fide) vice-president Viswanathan Anand also 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.

December was a memorable month for Indian chess. Dommaraju Gukesh became the youngest world champion in Singapore and Humpy and Vaishali shone in New York. In September, India did a double, grabbing pole positions in the men’s and women’s sections of the Chess Olympiad.

A first in ‘Open’

In the ‘Open’ section, world No. 1 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 were both tired, some will like it, some will not,” Carlsen said during a media interaction.

“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.

This was Carlsen’s second big win this week as the world body was forced to bring him back after his withdrawal from the Rapid championship just a couple of days back due to a dress code violation.