Vaishali Rameshbabu gave a measure of her talent late on Tuesday night by starting her Total Chess pilot event campaign by defeating Hans Niemann in a blitz game. Niemann was part of the seeding process for the tournament that will start in earnest from Wednesday.

In the 24-player field that is assembled in Budapest, Vaishali is among the only two women, along with Bibisara Assaubayeva, in the fray.

Before the start of the blitz section, Vaishali spoke to The Indian Express about her preparations for the upcoming Women’s World Chess Championship title fight with reigning champion Ju Wenjun, how her training has been going, how she views the Total Chess pilot tournament and more. Excerpts:

It’s the first time that you are preparing for a World Championship after doing this twice for the Candidates. How is it different preparing for the big one?

Vaishali: We’re just thinking about one player every day. The Candidates prep was a lot different; there you have to play seven players in a double round-robin.…