Vishwa Vasnawala becomes the latest Woman International Master of India
Vishwa Vasnawala scored her final WIM-norm at IM Ask 7 in Aranđelovac, Serbia on 5th March 2022. She scored 6.0/9, performed at 2351 to become India's latest Woman International Master. She scored her first WIM-norm at First Saturday IM May 2019. The second and third WIM-norms were scored in consecutive tournaments IM Ask 6 and 7 within a span of 13 days. Check out her games from the events where she made her norms along with a few best games annotated by her. After Dhyani Dave and Tejaswini Sagar, Vishwa became the third WIM of Gujarat. Her live rating 2314.6 also makes her the highest rated female chess player of her state.
Two WIM-norms in two weeks
Arpi Shah, the current PRO of Gujarat State Chess Association was the first player from Gujarat to score a WIM-norm in 1998 at Hampstead, England. Dhyani Dave became the first WIM of Gujarat in 2013, Tejaswini Sagar was the second in 2016. Almost 5.5 years later, Gujarat got his third WIM in the form of Vishwa Vasnawala. Since she has already crossed 2300 in the live ratings, she is now just three WGM-norms away from becoming India's next Woman Grandmaster.
Speaking with ChessBase India, Vishwa said, "I am feeling very ecstatic as WIM title is something that I always wanted to achieve. I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents and coaches (Nirav Rajasuba, GM Tejas Bakre , GM Aleksander Goloschapov, GM Maxim Dlugy, GM Vaibhav Suri and IM Borouljib Zlatanovic) from the bottom of my heart without which I wouldn't have been able to achieve this. Attaining the WIM title gave me a boost of confidence and I will work fingers to the bone to get the WGM title! I will take this opportunity to express my gratitude to ChessBase also as it is very difficult to imagine improvement in chess without ChessBase."
First WIM norm
Vishwa scored her first WIM-norm at First Saturday IM May 2019. Despite starting the tournament with only 0.5/2, she scored 4 points in the remaining seven games including wins over IM To Nhat Minh (HUN), IM Tibor Farkas (SRB). She drew with GM Zlatko Ilincic (SRB) and then WIM Pratyusha Bodda. Check out the game which secured her maiden WIM-norm, annotated by Vishwa herself in the seventh round against GM Ilincic.
Ilincic - Vishwa, First Saturday IM May 2019
It was all preparation for Vishwa until 12...Nge7 as she mentioned in her annotations. Find out the best continuation for Black.
Second WIM norm
The second WIM-norm was scored at IM Ask 6 in Arandjelovac, Serbia last month. Vishwa scored 5.5/9, performed at 2297. She defeated GM Miroslav Markovic (SRB), IM Zoran Runic (BIH) and IM Nikola Ostojic (SRB). She drew with GM Zlatko Ilincic (SRB) and GM Milko Popchev (BUL).
Vishwa - Erdem, Radnickichess IM T2 December 2021
16...Qc7 is a big positional mistake which turns things in White's favor. Find out how.
Third WIM norm
Vishwa scored her final WIM-norm at IM Ask 7 in Arandjelovac, Serbia. She defeated GM Milko Popchev (BUL) and IM Nikola Ostojic (SRB). She drew with GM Dejan Pikula (SRB), IM Zoran Novoselski (SRB) and IM Ivan Sredojevic (SRB).
Vishwa - Nikolic, IM Ask 7
12...Ne4 completely destroys Black's pawn structure 13.Nxf5 gxf5 14.Qc2 Nxc3 15.bxc3 and it's all over for Black. Rest is just a matter of technique which Vishwa converted into a full point with ease.
Vishwa scored her final WIM-norm at IM Ask 7, gained 111.6 Elo rating points
Next from Gujarat
WFM Dhyana Patel is the next female chess player who is likely to become a WIM. She already scored a WIM-norm at Novi Sad, Serbia in July 2021. She is 45 Elo rating points and two WIM-norms away from becoming India's next Woman International Master.
Replay Vishwa's games