Karthikeyan Murali: Meet ‘Karthi Anna’ who helped R Vaishali bounce back at Grand Swiss

R Vaishali, one of India’s only four women Grandmasters, would now be strategising for the women’s FIDE Candidates 2026, having secured a direct berth by winning the Grand Swiss 2025 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, recently. But did you know she had initially no plans to take part in the tournament?

Before the FIDE Grand Swiss kicked off in September, Vaishali had a horrible outing at the home tournament – Chennai Grandmasters.

How Karthikeyan Murali inspired R Vaishali?

The 24-year-old, who is also the elder sister of chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa, suffered seven straight losses at the tournament and secured just two draws.

“It might sound funny, but after Chennai, I decided not to play Grand Swiss,” she told ChessBase in an interview. “I felt so bad. Losing seven games in a row was hard to recover from.”

Lacking enthusiasm and motivation, Vaishali was close to turning away the opportunity to defend her title, which she won in 2023. But her childhood coach and mentor, RB Ramesh, stepped in at the most opportune time, putting Vaishali in touch with Karthikeyan Murali, a 26-year-old Grandmaster from Thanjavur.

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Karthikeyan’s job was to convince Vaishali. He did that over multiple calls in their local language, Tamil, which were full of encouragement.

The result?

Vaishal not only went on to defend her title, but she also scripted history by becoming the first Indian to defend the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss trophy successfully.

“Thanks to Karthi Anna, we had a long call, and somehow he convinced me to play in the Grand Swiss. I am very grateful to him,” Vaishali was quoted as saying by TimesofIndia.com.

Who is Karthikeyan Murali?

Karthikeyan Murali, who earned the Grandmaster title in 2015, is currently ranked 54th in the world. He picked up a liking for chess while playing it with his father, when he was on bed rest following a surgery.

“When I was nine or ten, my dad had surgery and was on bed rest for about 15 days. During that time, we played checkers, carrom, and chess. I got more interested in chess than anything else, and that’s how it started,” Karthikeyan told TimesofIndia.com.

While his initial chess days were marked with financial hardships, things improved after he joined the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in 2017.

“The difficult part wasn’t chess itself,” he told TOI. “It was getting financial support and sponsors. My family and me, we had to pay for travel and tournaments ourselves. Things were really difficult until 2017, when I got a job. It went very smoothly from there.”

He was also a part of the Chennai Grandmasters, where he finished fourth. Initially, Karthikeyan was part of the Challengers section but was added to the Masters roster after Vladimir Fedoseev pulled out.

Vaishali’s triumph in Uzbekistan is a classic example of how a little encouragement can go a long way. Hopefully, every player finds a mentor like Karthikeyan Murali — the way Vaishali did before the Grand Swiss.