Vaishali Rameshbabu: “Chess makes me happy”
After her triumph at the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2026 in Cyprus, Vaishali Rameshbabu shares her thoughts and feelings in an interview with Charlize van Zyl. She spoke about her games, her love and passion for chess, and her journey to victory. Below you can find both text and video versions of this interview. CharIize van Zyl: I am joined today by Vaishali Rameshbabu, the winner of the FIDE Women’s Candidates 2026. Vaishali, you were quite speechless in the last press conference, with the feeling still being new. Now that it’s sunk in, tell me how you feel about this amazing victory. Vaishali: It’s a dream-come-true moment for all of my family. It’s been a long journey to become World Champion and to be playing there, and I’m very happy that I won the Candidates. It was a very close event and quite an unpredictable one. Charlize van Zyl: Indeed, very close and very unpredictable until the last moments of the final round. Let’s talk about that last round. It’s fourteenth round; mathematically six of the eight players still have a chance to win, and everything’s on the line. You’re playing against Lagno. Tell me, what went through your preparation going into that and your mind-set from the night before to the start of the game? Vaishali: The one good thing is that we had the same round timing as any other round, unlike an early morning game or something else compared to other tournaments. I just kept to my routine and prepared as usual. The approach was simply to play the base game and accept whatever comes, because only my game is under my control. The Sicilian Dragon came as a huge surprise, but I had prepared it before the tournament, so that helped. Charlize van Zyl: So, knowing you had to win and knowing that Lagno also knew you had to win, there was no special preparation even outside of the board? Vaishali: Not really. Again, if she beats me, then she also had some chances, and the tournament would have been wide open. That’s why she played for more and chose the Dragon because, otherwise, she could have chosen some other solid option. Of course, that also helped me because I was happy to face the Sicilian given the situation. Charlize van Zyl: In the final round, did you find yourself looking over at Bibisara – Divya at all or did you stay focused on what was going on in your own game? Vaishali: Of course, I checked briefly here and there, but I tried my maximum to focus on my game, because that’s what matters in the end. Charlize van Zyl: Let’s talk a bit about your escape-artist phase in the first half of the event. With Divya and Goryachkina, there were a few slippery moments, but you handled them so well. This is a very good trait that you have. Do you think it is luck, or is this a skill of yours that you don’t give up, you keep going? Vaishali: A bit of both. Even when you’re very resourceful, it doesn’t work all the time, so I had some luck there for sure. I also feel that I was very resourceful and I didn’t give up: I kept putting small pressure, because everyone here is so strong and it’s not easy to fight back from a worse position against them. Even starting from the first game in which I found this a4, Nc4 idea and she had to find this Qf8 idea, which was the only way to keep the advantage. That wasn’t easy at all. Then in the second game against Divya there was this one slip where she found Qg4, and my position became lost, but with less time it wasn’t easy. So, summing up, resourcefulness and a bit of luck. Charlize van Zyl: So you had this resourcefulness in the first half while in the second half you showed a lot of technique and played some incredibly good games. Did you change anything between the first and the second half of the event; preparation or anything outside the chess? Vaishali: My first win came against Lagno: I played a very good game, but towards the end I missed some chances and over a couple of moves I was lost, and by the time we reached the time control, she blundered and I was winning again. Overall I was outplaying her but during two or three moves, things bent up. I felt that I should not have missed that chance but that is was OK. Then let’s not forget my game against Tan Zhongyi in the first half, because it changed things totally. I played very badly right from the opening and I was very lucky to score a win from this position. Initially, I felt very bad because I shouldn’t be playing like this and taking points, so therefore I started to focus on my game quality: I just wanted to play some good games. I think in the second half, my play drastically improved and I, indeed, played some good games. Charlize van Zyl: You told us in the press conference that you felt bad, but do you have that feeling during the game itself, or do you try to mute it? Vaishali: There are games where I’m worse and I keep defending and save the game, but in this one it didn’t feel like I was defending. It’s just a moment of lapse that could happen to anybody. I’ve had many painful losses like this, and it’s just tough: I have also been there, and it will just feel miserable, what to do? The moment she played Ra1, she obviously understood, but it was too late. It’s very tough, but it goes on. Charlize van Zyl: Another tough game was against Zhu Jiner in the second half. It was such a critical one, where she caught up to you, but you kept fighting back afterwards. You told