Vaishali and Lagno win WR Women's Chess Tour opener in Tokyo

by Stefan Liebig
6/11/2026 – Vaishali Rameshbabu remains on the fast track: after gaining the right to challenge Ju Wenjun in a match for the World Championship title, the young Indian grandmaster won the rapid chess event of the WR Women's Chess Tour in Tokyo. The blitz tournament was won by the experienced Kateryna Lagno. Both earned 15 points towards the tour standings. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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According to organiser Wadim Rosenstein, the WR Women's Chess Tour is modelled on the WTA tennis circuit. This global knockout series brings together the world's best female chess players at major venues on four continents. In Tokyo, the games took place at the Tokyo Toranomon Edition Hotel. A livestream kept chess fans around the world informed via WR Chess's English-language YouTube channel and, at the same time, via the Japanese Chess Federation’s Japanese-language YouTube channel.

Vaishali Rameshbabu and Kateryna Lagno win Asian leg

Vaishali Rameshbabu is in excellent form: after winning the Candidates Tournament in Cyprus in April and qualifying for the World Championship match against Ju Wenjun, Praggnanandhaa's sister played her first tournament in Tokyo. It was the opening event of the WR Women's Chess Tour, a global knockout series with five stops on four continents in 2026 and a total prize fund of 200,000 US dollars. Vaishali showed her consistency and won the rapid tournament. In the blitz tournament, Kateryna Lagno (FIDE) prevailed.

With these tournament victories, Vaishali and Lagno secured their tickets to the Grand Final in Stuttgart.

Vaishali in Tokyo | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Rapid (15+10)

The event was played as an eight-player knockout tournament. Vaishali defeated IM Irene Sukandar of Indonesia in the first round, i.e. the quarterfinal, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk of Switzerland in the semifinal, and finally Kazakhstan's IM Alua Nurman in the final. Vaishali won every round by a score of 1½–½. The losing semifinalists, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Kateryna Lagno, shared third place.

Games

Blitz (3+2)

In the blitz, however, Vaishali's run ended in the semifinal. She lost 0–3 to eventual winner Kateryna Lagno. Lagno had also beaten Japan's Azumi Sakai 3–0 in round one. The final was then a dramatic affair: in the long-running duel between Lagno and Kosteniuk, the match went into overtime, and Lagno won the Armageddon game.

Kateryna Lagno is congratulated by her oppoent | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Games

Links

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Topics: Kateryna Lagno, Vaishali Rameshbabu, WR Women's Chess Tour
Stefan Liebig, born in 1974, is a journalist and co-owner of a marketing agency. He now lives in Barterode near Göttingen. At the age of five, strange pieces on his neighbour’s shelf aroused his curiosity. Since then, the game of chess has cast a spell over him. Flying high in the NRW youth league with his home club SV Bad Laasphe and several appearances in the second division team of Tempo Göttingen were highlights for the former youth South Westphalia champion.
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Video

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This entry into the 60 minutes series concentrates on the Modern variation of the Italian game where White opens the centre early : 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d4 exd4 5 e5!. This line can be reached by various move orders, most frequently from the Scotch 3 d4 exd4 4 Bc4. It's a sharp variation and Grandmasters such as Evgeny Sveshnikov have used it frequently,with very good results. It's a perfect line for club players to adopt which is relatively easy to learn and which contains many traps. All the main responses are covered here, including 5...d5, 5...Ng4 and 5...Ne4 and the conclusion is that is is difficult for Black to equalize in a straightforward way. Problems are being posed, which over the board might prove tough to solve.