Vaibhav is an up and coming Indian junior who, in May 2010, defeated several grandmasters in the 2nd Orissa Grandmaster Tournament (where he gained a GM norm) and the Commonwealth Chess Championships. His score against 12 grandmasters was +3 -2 =7, his wins being against Kidambi Sundararajan, Dibyendu Barua, and Enamul Hossain. His results in these two tournaments lifted his FIDE rating in July 2010 by 72 points to 2419. He scored 7.5/11 in the 2010 World Youth U14 championships placing 8th on count back. He made up some ground in December 2010 in the Indian National Premier Championship to score 8/11 and place =5th (10th on count back). In January 2011, he scored 6.5/11 in the 9th International Open in New Delhi and 6/9 at the Tradewise Gibraltar (2011), which included a win against former World number 4 Jonathan Speelman. He competed in the 10th Asian Individual Championships (2011) scoring 4.5/9 and at the the Alekhine Memorial Tournament at Voronezh in the Ukraine, scoring 5.5/9. He also competed in the World Junior Championships (2011), scoring a slightly disappointing 7.5/12 against mainly sub-masterclass opponents. In August 2011, he came 4th in the category X BDO Chess Tournament Premier in the Netherlands with 5.5/9. In December 2011, Vaibhav scored his 2nd GM norm in the tenth round when he held GM Marat Dzhumaev to a draw in the International Open held in Vizag in India.

Vaibhav started 2012 with 6/9 at the Aeroflot Open B, narrowly missing his 3rd GM norm. However, he secured his 3rd GM norm - and the GM title - at the age of 15 years 2 months and 21 days when he won the Luc Open in Lille, France on April 29, 2012 with his score of 7.5/9 (TPR, an astonishing 2780). The following month, he placed =2nd at the Orissa GM Open with 8/10 and =5th at the Mumbai Mayor Trophy GM Open, with 8.5/11. Although he was the outright winner of the Indian National U17 Boys held in Lucknow in July 2012, his 8.5/11 was a below-rating performance, causing him to shed 10 ratings points, albeit without affecting his rankings. He finished 2012 with a reasonably strong 6/11 result at the Kolkata Open (2012), adding enough rating points to push him back over 2500.

He built on his successes of 2012 by placing =2nd in the 2013 Delhi Open, half a point behind Alexey Aleksandrov and alongside Marat Dzhumaev and Henrik Teske, scoring 7.5/10, his only loss being against Aleksandrov. He followed up strongly with outright second with 7/9 at the International Open in de Lille in France in April 2013, picking up another 20 ratings points.