Vaishali Rameshbabu (born 21 June 2001) is an Indian chess grandmaster. In December 2023 she became the third Indian woman, after Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli, to earn the grandmaster title. She and her younger brother, R. Praggnanandhaa, are the first brother and sister in history who are both grandmasters. She won the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss in 2023 and 2025 and was part of the Indian women’s team that won gold at the 2024 Chess Olympiad.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Vaishali Rameshbabu |
| Born | 21 June 2001, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Age | 25 |
| Title | Grandmaster (2023) |
| Coach | R. B. Ramesh |
| Sibling | R. Praggnanandhaa (grandmaster) |
| Parents | Rameshbabu, Nagalakshmi |
| Honour | Arjuna Award (2024) |
Early Life
Vaishali was born in Chennai. Her father, Rameshbabu, is a bank employee, and her mother, Nagalakshmi, accompanies her and her brother to tournaments. Her parents sent her to chess classes at about six, partly to reduce the time she spent watching cartoons. Her success drew her younger brother into the game.
Career
She won the world girls’ under-12 championship in 2012 and the under-14 title in 2015. As a 12-year-old in 2013 she beat the future world champion Magnus Carlsen in a simultaneous exhibition he gave in Chennai. She became a Woman Grandmaster in 2018 and an International Master in 2021.
At the 2023 Women’s Grand Swiss on the Isle of Man she finished first, unbeaten, which qualified her for the Candidates. In December 2023 she passed a rating of 2500 at a tournament in Spain, completing the grandmaster title. She and Praggnanandhaa then played in the Candidates tournaments in Toronto in April 2024, the first siblings to do so; after a poor start she won her last five games to share second place.
She won team bronze at the 2022 Olympiad in Chennai and team gold at Budapest in 2024. She took bronze at the 2024 World Blitz Championship and won the Women’s Grand Swiss again in Samarkand in September 2025.
Personal Life
Vaishali studied commerce in Chennai. She has spoken about the pressure of being compared with her younger brother and about how the two analyse games together at home.
Awards and Honours
Major Results
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Vaishali Rameshbabu born?
Vaishali Rameshbabu was born on 21 June 2001 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and is 25 years old.
Featured image: Vaishali Rameshbabu at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, Wijk aan Zee, January 2025. Photo by Frans Peeters, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
