India, April 17 -- 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 ...