Vaishali breaks silence on brother Praggnanandhaa's poor Candidates 2026 run: 'It’s tough, but...'

Being the first ever Grandmaster brother-sister pair in chess history, R Vaishali and R Praggnanandhaa are used to traveling around the world together participating in high-profile tournaments. The latest among them is the Fide Candidates that got underway at Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Cyprus on 28 March and is set to conclude four days from now.

Praggnanandhaa is the lone Indian competing in the 'Open' section of the tournament while Vaishali is participating in the Women's event, where she is joined by compatriot Divya Deshmukh and seven others. The siblings, however, have had completely contrasting campaigns so far.

On the one hand, Praggnanandhaa was off to a wining start, beating Dutch GM Anish Giri in Round 1. The 20-year-old, however, has remained winless since then and currently finds himself second-from-bottom in the 'Open' standings, his hopes of setting up a historic all-Indian World Championship clash against D Gukesh now over.

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Vaishali and Divya, meanwhile, had not collected a single win in their first five outings, the former playing out four consecutive draws before losing to Zhu Jiner in the fifth. The two Indians would finally snap their winless run in the sixth round, with Vaishali going on to win her next round as well.

And while Divya could not carry the momentum for long beyond her sixth-round victory over Kazakhstan's Bibisara Assaubayeva, Vaishali quickly catapulted herself to the top of the standings and has remained steady in her perch since then.

Vaishali reflects on Pragg's 'tough' situation in Candidates

Speaking to ChessBase India after her victory over Russia's Aleksandra Goryachkina in Round 11 on Saturday, the 24-year-old revealed that the siblings had faced such situations while participating in events together, but there wasn't much they could do for one another in the middle of the tournament when they were so focused on their own game.

"It’s tough. But throughout the years, we’ve had such moments where (in) some important tournament, either of us tournament won’t go well, so that’s how I think it is. It goes on. I’m trying to focus on my tournament. It’s tough, but what to do," Vaishali, who occupies the top spot in the women's standings with 7 points in 11 rounds, said on Saturday.

Both Pragg and Vaishali are making their second appearance at the Candidates, having made their debut in the previous edition in Toronto. And the kind of form Vaishali is in at the moment, it appears highly like that the prestigious event will have at least one Indian winner in either category, with Gukesh having become the youngest champion in the tournament's history two years ago.