FIDE Candidates: How R Vaishali outplayed Divya Deshmukh to win the all-Indian clash and took joint lead

R Vaishali defeated Divya Deshmukh in the all-Indian clash in the ninth round of the FIDE Candidates 2026 on Wednesday to get to the top of the standings in the women's section of the competition.

Vaishali, playing with whites, broke through Deshmukh's defence and defeated the reigning Chess World Cup winner in just 31 moves. Both the players entered the game as table-toppers but only Vaishali could come out of it still leading the charts. Going into Round 9, five women were tied at the first spot that is now shared between Vaishali and China's Zhu Jiner.

How Vaishali defeated Deshmukh?

Vaishali opted to start the game with a Reti Opening and Deshmukh was solid with her replies until she pushed her knight back on the 17th move. This allowed Vaishali to capture a pawn in the centre and weaken Deshmukh's structure.

This was the starting blow for Deshmukh and Vaishali did not let her opponent recover after that. Deshmukh further weakened her centre by playing Rg6 on the 21st move. Two moves later, Vaishali was ready with the first of her two brilliant rook sacrifices. She invaded the seventh rank with her rook to leave her opponent in trouble with time also ticking out fast.

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Rb7 at the 31st move from Vaishali was the final nail in the coffin as Deshmukh resigned after this rook sacrifice.

The victory helped Vaishali climb to the top of the ladder alongside Jinner with 5.5/9 while Deshmukh dropped to the joint-fourth position with 4.5/9.

Meanwhile, in other significant result for Indian fans, R Praggnanandhaa's bid to a miraculous run to the top of the standings in the open section suffered a further setback. The sole Indian in the open section split points with Wei Yi. He was in an advantageous position but an inaccuracy on Move 42 evened the situation and both players fought out for a draw.

Javokhir Sindarov continues to lead the open section with 7/9 while Anish Giri, who defeated Fabiano Caruana in the ninth round, is now placed second with 5.5/9.