Late on Friday, playing at the IV El Llobregat Open tournament in Spain, Vaishali Rameshbabu defeated FM Tamer Selbes in a match that had much bigger implications. The victory nudged Vaishali’s rating points to over 2500, which marked her entry into the elusive Indian grandmaster club: current membership of 84. Vaishali also becomes a part of an even smaller group: Indian women to achieve the grandmaster title, which has just three members, Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli besides Vaishali.

Reaching the pinnacle of chess’ pecking order — a grandmaster title — will also go a long way in liberating Vaishali from the tag of being ‘Praggnanandhaa’s sister’, as she has been referred to over the years. While it was Vaishali who first started playing the sport, it was her younger brother who started making waves on the chess scene, setting records like becoming the youngest international master in the world.