Praggnanandhaa & sister Vaishali to make historic Candidates debut

AT THE UPCOMING Candidates chess tournament, India's 18-year-old R Praggnanandhaa and 22-year-old R Vaishali will carve a slice of history before a pawn has marched down the battlefield of the 64 squares: they will become the first brother and sister duo to play at the prestigious tournament, which has been around since 1950.

- AMIT KAMATH

In sport, there cannot be a better advantage than having a sibling who can play at the same elite level. But in chess, that equation does not hold true, which is why the brother and sister have been training separately as they work towards what is the toughest test of their fledgling careers so far.

"They both are going to play in important tournaments. So both their preparations have been largely separate. It's very logical. Both are playing in different events with different expectations. Simple thing is, Pragg's rating is almost 2750 and Vaishali's is around 2500.

There's an almost 250 points difference there. The kind of opponents they will be playing will be very similar. They cannot be playing the same openings. It will be like showing all your cards to the opponents in the beginning itself. If someone wants to prepare for Pragg, he just has to look at Vaishali's openings and he'll know what Pragg is bound to do. That's why we've been training separately. They're two different individuals, even though they're siblings. They have different needs going to the Candidates," explains Ramesh.