CHENNAI: Men have dominated Indian chess scene for years, but the historic gold won by the Indian women's team at the Olympiad in Budapest a few days ago can be a game-changer. Chennai girl R Vaishali, who has been stepping out of her brother R Praggnanandhaa's shadows, was part of the team that also had D Harika, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Tania Sachdev. She feels that this is just the beginning for the girls as they aim for more in the future.
"We are currently seeing this boom with so many youngsters coming in. But we have always lacked in the women's section. I feel this medal makes it clear that we are also getting there, slowly but surely. And there are some other girls who are waiting to get into the team. I think we Indian girls are slowly getting there to the top. Divya is now in the top-10 in the world, which is very good, and Vantika also has been doing well. I just hope many more girls will look up to this gold medal and take up the sport professionally," Vaishali told TOI.
