Unless you’re brand new to the game (or at least following it online), you’re almost certainly familiar by now with Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. The Indian youngster (18 years old) was one of the youngest ever GMs (achieving the title aged 12 years, 10 months, and 13 days) and is currently #13 in the world and qualified for next year’s Candidates tournament. That’s an impressive resume, to put it mildly. But did you know that his older (22-year-old) sister, Rameshbabu Vaishali, is also a (newly minted) GM? They are the first brother-sister GMs in chess history (there have been brothers who were GMs and sisters who were GMs, and now the third combination has been achieved as well), and it turns out that they’re the first brother-sister pair to have qualified for the Candidates, too. (The women’s Candidates for Vaishali.) Congrats to them both, and you can read a bit more about their relationship here.
A quick update on the London Chess Classic: Michael Adams continues to lead with two rounds to go; his score of 5/7 has him half a point ahead of Dommaraju Gukesh and a resilient and resurgent Amin Tabatabei. Tabatabei lost in rounds 1 (to Adams) and 3, but except for a draw in round 5 with Hans Niemann he has won his remaining games. There are no guarantees, of course, but at least on paper Adams has the easiest pairings of the three and has excellent chances to win the tournament. It would be wonderful to see the comparatively old Adams add this to his brilliant resume.
Finally, the Champions Chess Tour Final starts today (Saturday) and runs through the 16th. While the tour is primarily made up of online events, the Final takes place in Toronto and features a field almost entirely composed of players clustered at the top of the world’s rankings: Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Alireza Firouzja, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Nodirbek Abudsattorov, and…Denis Lazavik?! Lazavik isn’t anywhere near the strength of the other players yet, but as he has only just turned 17 he has a few years to work his way into the elite. (A great result here would be a big step in that direction.) More info here; looks like the action starts at 11:30 a.m. ET.