“I feel like I am ahead of other girls because of WACA” – Vaishali Rameshbabu
The Westbridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA) is a coaching or training institution created by former world chess champion Viswanathan Anand. The Indian grandmaster, 51, has taken five of India’s brightest chess talents, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and his sister Vaishali Rameshbabu, Nihal Sarin, Dommaraju Gukesh and Raunak Sadhwani and is moulding them into world championship candidates.
Praggnanandhaa and Sarin have broken into the FIDE 2600 zone, and Gukesh and Sadhwani are close to 2550. Vaishali Rameshbabu is the best junior in India and is ranked closely behind two Indian full-fledged grandmasters, Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli.
Anand, who ruled the number one spot in Indian chess for about three decades, is rated 2753 by FIDE and is still active. The five-time world champion has teamed up with Westbridge Capital, an acclaimed investment firm. He has given the five youngsters mentioned a fellowship and will personally mentor them. Each year the players will be assessed based on their performances and improvement, and new players will take their places. Anand told ChessBase India that his inspiration to establish the academy came from an Olympic gold quest, the Mikhail Botvinnik Academy and the Samford Fellowship.
Anand is supported in the academy by three trainers who have assisted him in the past: Artur Yusupov, Sandipan Chanda and Grzegorz Gajewski, as well as Soviet-born Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand. Anand is very clear what he wants from the academy: “What I want to see from this is to make sure some of them will break into the top 10. I want our juniors to climb the world rankings. I want to support them in the next few years and I feel it is a very important step for our youngsters.”
Chess game
White: Rameshbabu Praggandnandhaa
Black: Anish Giri
Event: 2022 Meltwater Chess Tour Finals (Blitz)
Type of Game: Indian Game: General
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. e3 Bg7 5. h4 h5 6. Nf3 O-O 7. Qd2 c5 8. Ne5 Nc6 9. O-O-O cxd4 10. exd4 Bf5 11. Bb5 Nb4 12. Ba4 b5 13. Bxb5 Qa5 14. a3 Rfc8 15. axb4 Qa1+ 16. Nb1 Ne41 7. Qe2 a5 18. Nc6 axb4 19. Nxe7+ Kh7 20. Nxf5 Ra2 21. Rd3 Qxb2+ 22. Kd1 Qxb1+ 23. Bc1 Raxc2 24. Qe3 Nxf2+ 25. Ke1 Re8 26. Bxe8 Nxd3+ 27. Qxd3 Rxc1+ 28. Kd2 Qxd3+ 29. Kxd3 Rxh1. 0-1. White resigns.
