International Master (2010); Grandmaster (2012) at the age of 15 years 2 months 21 days.

Vaibhav is currently one of five Grandmasters born in 1997 (the others being Russian GMs Mikhail Antipov and Grigoriy Oparin, Israeli GM Avital Boruchovsky and most recently as the date of this update (see below) German GM Matthias Bluebaum).

Championships

<Youth> He scored 7.5/11 in the 2010 World Youth U14 championships placing 8th on count back. He was the outright winner of the Indian National U17 Boys held in Lucknow in July 2012, scoring 8.5/11. He was =2nd (3rd on tiebreak) behind Pouya Idani at the World U18 World Championship 2013, and outright 2nd behind Olexandr Bortnyk at the World U18 Championship in 2014.

<Junior> He also competed in the World Junior Championship (2011), scoring 7.5/12.

<National> In December 2010, he scored 8/11 to place =5th in the Indian National Premier Championship.

<Continental> He competed in the 10th Asian Individual Championships (2011) scoring 4.5/9.

Standard Tournaments

<2010> In May, Vaibhav 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.

<2011> In January, 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. At the the Alekhine Memorial Tournament held in Voronezh in Ukraine, he scored 5.5/9. In August, he came 4th in the category 10 BDO Chess Tournament Premier in the Netherlands with 5.5/9. In December, 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.

<2012> 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). In May, he placed =2nd at the Orissa GM Open with 8/10 and =5th at the Mumbai Mayor Trophy GM Open, with 8.5/11. 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.

<2013> He built on his successes of 2012 by placing =2nd in the 2013 Delhi Open, half a point behind Aleksej Aleksandrov and alongside Marat Dzhumaev and Henrik Teske, scoring 7.5/10, his only loss being against 5Aleksandrov. He followed up strongly with outright second with 7/9 at the International Open in de Lille in France in April, picking up another 20 ratings points. A strong =5th with 7/10 at the 2013 Orissa open in May was undone by a mediocre result at the 6th Major's Cup International Open in Mumbai later that month, costing him rating points and a world ranking in his age group (U16). He recovered some ground in October when he placed =1st at the 2013 Indonesian Open.

<2014> Vaibhav started the year with 6/10 in the Delhi Open in January 2014 and followed with =2nd with 7.5/10 at the 6th KIIT International GM Open - 2014 held in May 2014 in India. He scored a strong 6/9 at the Abu Dhabi Masters in August, adding 15 points to his rating for October.

<2017> He won the 2nd ChessBase India online blitz.

Rating

Vaibhav's highest rating to date is 2600, achieved in 2020.