File image of R Vaishali.© X (Twitter)
India’s R Vaishali won a bronze medal in the women’s category of the World Blitz Championship, marking another strong performance by the country’s chess players after veteran Koneru Humpy’s title-winning performance in the rapid event here. Vaishali defeated Zhu Jin’er of China 2.5-1.5 in the quarter-finals and lost to another Chinese opponent Xu Wenjun 0.5-2.5 in the semi-finals. In an event completely dominated by the Chinese, Xu Wenjun won the world title by defeating compatriot Lei Tingjie 3.5–2.5.
Five-time world champion and International Chess Federation (FIDE) vice-president Vishwanathan Anand congratulated Vaishali for her efforts and said it was a great way to end the year.
Anand wrote on ‘X’, “Congratulations to Vaishali for winning the bronze medal. Her qualification was truly a strong performance. Our WAKA Chess Mentor (Westbridge Anand Chess Academy) has done us proud.”
“We are very happy to support him and his chess. What a way to end 2024. In 2021, we thought we would get strong chess players but here we have a world champion (Hampy) and a bronze medalist (Vaishali)!” He has written.
In the ‘Open’ category, world number one Magnus Carlsen and Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi shared the blitz title, as three sudden-death games failed to produce a winner. It was the first time that the title had been awarded to two players, after Carlsen asked whether it could be shared given the impasse.
“We got to the point where it was a long day. We played a lot of games, we had three draws and I felt like I could keep playing. But it was a good solution to share the win, it was a good way to end it.” “It was a good way to do that,” Carlson said.
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