Bengaluru: Adhiban Baskaran received a text from Vaishali Rameshbabu the night before she left for Cyprus for the Candidates tournament. It read: “Can we meet Anna?” (elder brother). They hopped on a Zoom call the next day and the 24-year-old, who was coming off a difficult year and was the lowest seed in the tournament, was nervous and grappling with doubts. “I lost my sleep after her text that night,” Adhiban, the fifth Indian player to breach 2700 Elo said. “I knew I had to think of a way to motivate her before she left,”
Through the fortnight of the Candidates tournament, Adhiban kept up his vigil of making sure Vaishali wasn’t too much in her head.
“It was kind of difficult because every day I had to come up with something new to say to her,” Adhiban, nicknamed ‘beast’ because of his ultra-aggressive playing style, laughs. “In a way this is the role (RB) Ramesh sir played for me during tournaments. So, I was happy to do the same for Vaishali, who’s like a little sister to me.”
Ahead of the last Candidates in 2024, Vaishali and her trainer would send Adhiban positions to solve. “I wasn’t part of her team, but I helped a bit with openings. I remember I was playing the Reykjavik Open when they sent me some things to solve. I completed it and sent it back on a rest day. This time she needed psychological support more than anything else after the year she had. But it was clear to me that mentally she had done a lot of work and was ready. I noticed it in in her body language after defeats. She wasn’t giving up.”
The biggest test of Adhiban’s motivational prowess arrived in Round 12 after Vaishali was outplayed and knocked out of sole lead by Zhu Jiner. “I was like ‘oh, crap. Now what? Anything can happen in the tournament. It’s wide open’. Of course I couldn’t tell her that. So, I gave her Magnus’s (Carlsen) example instead. Magnus lost two games in the 2013 Candidates but still ended up winning the tournament. If peak Magnus can lose two games, nothing is impossible and in a tournament like the Candidates, sometimes things aren’t in our control.”
In an interview with HT after her win, Vaishali spoke of Adhiban’s influence in her journey. “Even before I became an IM or GM, he’s someone who always believed in me. We kept meeting during Ramesh sir’s camps. During the Candidates I was hardly in touch with anyone. But Adhiban anna was someone kept motivating me, pushing me and messaging me throughout the tournament.”
Sometimes even on rest days. “It ended up being a joke between us. Sometimes I would forget to check the schedule and send her a motivational text wishing her good luck for the game and it would turn out to be a rest day.”
On occasion, he bluffed. Adhiban recalls being angry with himself after a draw because he thought he played badly until his then trainer Elizbar Ubilava said he had played a ‘great game’. “It flipped a switch within me and I went on to win the next game. I tried the same with Vaishali and told her she played a good game after she lost. I think it was right before her first win. I didn’t think she played a great game but it’s fine to try a fake stimulus I believe as long as it gets the job done.”
With Vaishali in the co-lead and the contest still open heading into the final round, Adhiban decided to take a step back. “Before such a high-stakes game I didn’t want to say something wrong. I stayed quiet. I think she did a great job all by herself anyway. It’s the nerves that decided the tournament. It’s what separated her from the rest.”
