WGMs Vaishali Rameshbabu and Deysi Cori punched the tickets to Women's Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix after winning the 5th qualifier.

Nearly 200 players took part in a 3+1 Swiss event and after 13 intense rounds of chess, the top 8 made it to the knockout playoff stage:

IM Anastasia Bodnaruk – 10.5/13
GM Valentina Gunina - 10
WIM Vaishali R - 10
GM Antoaneta Stefanova - 10
IM Alina Kashlinskaya – 9.5
GM Nino Batsiashvili – 9.5
WGM Elena Tomilova – 9.5
WGM Deysi Cori – 9.5

It was the fourth time the strongest Peruvian female player Deysi Cori found herself in a playoff and this one was a charm. In her first match, she knocked out Bodnaruk in the Armageddon game; in the second one, she crushed Stefanova 2-0.

The 19-year-old Chennai-native Vaishali R played her third playoff in this competition and she did not miss the opportunity this time. In quarterfinals, Vaishali defeated Kashlinskaya 1,5-0,5 and then prevailed over Gunina 1.5-0.5 in the semi-final match for a spot in the Grand Prix stage.

It was a lucky day for siblings. Both Vaishali R and Deysi Cori have prodigy brothers - the fourth-youngest GM in history Praggnanandhaa R and Jorge Cori, who became a GM at 14, respectively.

The FIDE Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship is an online competition for female players held between June 18 and July 20, 2020. The championship consists of four separate stages, with the first now underway.

Six Swiss tournaments, followed by a knockout are played to deliver two qualifiers each for the Grand Prix stage that follows. WSCC Super Final in which two best players of Grand Prix face-off, crowns the competition. The Swiss tournaments are open to any titled women player (WCM/WFM/WIM/WGM/IM/GM). Each one of the Grand Prix legs has a total prize fund of 10,300 USD, with 3,000 going to the winner. The prize fund of WSCC Super Final amounts to 10,000 USD, with 6,500 going to the winner, and 3,500 to the runner up.

More information about the FIDE Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship can be found here.