Vaishali completed the requisite 2500 ELO points Llobregat Open tournament in Spain to become only the third Indian woman after Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli to become a GM.
The game incidentally was an old Sicilian where Shirov tried an unconventional ninth move.
India will be fielding three teams each in the Open and women's sections respectively.
A record number of 634 sportspersons were on Friday cleared by the Sports Ministry to compete at the Hangzhou Asian Games, surpassing the 572 athletes in the last edition of continental showpiece in Jakarta in 2018.
Top seeded Grandmaster Koneru tried her best but could not breach Zhao Xue's defence and drew a tense game to remain joint third after the ninth round of the IS Bank Ataturk Women Grand Prix chess event in Istanbul.
Mumba's only win came on the prodigy board. Jonas Bjerre of American Gambits launched an all-out attack against Raunak Sadhwani, even sacrificing a piece.
India's top player and Asian Games gold medallist Koneru Humpy, who had come back into medal contention after a modest performance on day two, had to settle for the sixth place though she logged eight points.
India 'B' blanked Estonia 4-0 in the second round of the Open section in the 44th Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram, Chennai, on Saturday while the second-seeded India 'A' team defeated Moldova 3.5-0.5 to make it two wins from as many matches.
The US team fought back brilliantly after being trounced in Round 1 by India to win the second and the Blitz tie-break 4.5-1.5, emerging victorious in an exciting semi-final in the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad on Tuesday.
Any player with a Chess.com blitz or FIDE standard rating of under 2000 could play with former world champion Anand by donating US$150 and with the other four GMs by paying US$25 as registration amount.
China won the top prize on the basis of having won the round-robin stage.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday.
Shami was there to receive the honours. He took 24 wickets in seven World Cup games last year.
In the women section being held alongside, Indian women played out a hard-fought draw against experienced Georgia 1 team. All the games were drawn.
Mumba Masters secured a vital 14-5 win over Alpine Sg Pipers on day six of the Global Chess League here on Tuesday, dealing a major blow to the Pipers' chances of closing in on the top two teams.
Apart from a place in the Candidates to be played in April next year in Canada, Vaishali got richer by US$25000 (Over Rs 20 Lakhs) while Vidit took home a whopping prize purse of US$80000 (Over Rs 66 Lakhs).
The Indian men's and women's chess teams won silver medals at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Saturday.
Triveni Continental Kings beat Ganges Grandmasters, led by five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, to set up a final against upGrad Mumba Masters.
India's schedule on Day 4 of the Asian Games on Wednesday, September 27.
Young Indian Grandmaster Vaishali Rameshbabu on Thursday beat International Master Munkhzul Turmunkh of Mongolia to storm into the semi-finals of the first leg of FIDE chess.com Women Speed Chess Championships but the country's top player Koneru Humpy bowed out in the opener.
India suffered a double blow, losing its third and fourth round matches to Europe and top-seeded China by similar 1.5-2.5 margins, on the second day of the FIDE-Chess.com Online Nations Cup on Wednesday. Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand came up against a strong opponent in Ding Liren and the two agreed to sign peace in 54 moves. P Harikrishna held higher-rated Yu Yangyi to a draw while long-time rivals Koneru Humpy and Hou Yifan drew their game.
'The Indian Open team was extremely well prepared and motivated to win the gold medal.' 'With two players in the world top 10 club, and four players with over 2,700 ELO points (GMs Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, all below 20) and Vidit Gujrathi and P Harikrishna, it was a solid team.'
India played out a 2-2 draw against Europe in Online Nations Cup chess tournament in the eighth round, a setback after their first win in the event notched up against the Rest of the World. Vidith Gujrathi ended his barren spell with a win over Levon Aronian of Europe with white pieces while Jan-Krystozf Duda beat P Harikrishna to level the scores in the match on Friday.
Former World champion Viswanathan Anand and India cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal among others took part in an online chess charity event, raising Rs 8.8 lakh for the waste pickers' community fighting the coronavirus pandemic. "Chess For Charity", held on Saturday on chess.com, saw India No.1 Anand, No. 2 Vidit Gujrathi, Grandmaster Nihal Sarin, Woman Grandmaster Tania Sachdev and Croatia's Antonio Radic take on a team of comedians comprising Biswa Kalyan Rath, Samay Raina, Abhishek Upamanyu and Aakash Mehta.
India 'B' played out a 2-2 draw against Azerbaijan in the 9th round of the open section, while India 'A' and 'C' teams registered identical 3-1 wins in the 44th Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram, Chennai, on Sunday.
All India Chess Federation (AICF) president Sanjay Kapoor said the federation is also working on organising an Indian Chess League.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday.
In the women's section being held simultaneously, the Indians came back strongly to beat Poland 3-1 aided by victories from D Harika and Tania Sachdev on board two and three. Its surprising that Tania Sachdev was rested in the previous round when the Indian team drew with Serbia, losing on last two boards.
ll India Chess Federation (AICF) has offered Vidit Gujrathi and Koneru Humpy to play the remaining matches from five-star hotels.
Five-time world champions Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen played out a draw in the top duel of the opening day as the second edition of the Global Chess League began with players from around the world squaring off in London on Thursday.
The Armenians protested for a long time delaying the start of the second round of matches before withdrawing following rejection of their appeal.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday.
With Viswanathan Anand resting, the Indian team managed to hold their own against the favourites before Yu Yangyi subdued B Adhiban with black pieces to secure another victory in the tournament.
The stage is set for the inaugural edition of the Global Chess League to get underway in Dubai.
IDE, for the very first time has instituted the torch relay, which is part of the Olympic tradition but was never done in the Chess Olympiad.
Following is India's schedule at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Sunday, October 1.
P V Sindhu won the ESPN's 'Female Sportsperson of the Year' award while young shooter Saurabh Chaudhary bagged the honour in the male category.
Following is India's schedule at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, on Friday, October 7.
Following is India's schedule at the Asian Games on Tuesday, October 3.
With the Indian teams doing well so far, they can run into one another in the competition.
