Divya Deshmukh turned the fourth Indian girl to earn the Grandmaster title. Courtesy? The 19-year-old Nagpur woman’s victory on the FIDE Ladies’s World Cup 2025 in Batumi, Georgia.
Divya’s historic second got here towards none apart from fellow Indian chess legend Koneru Humpy. The FIDE star follows Humpy, R. Vaishali, and Harika Dronavalli in taking the distinguished Grandmaster title.
In contrast to most who tread the lengthy street of GM norms and ranking milestones, Divya’s achievement of the Grandmaster title got here from an atypical path.
How Divya Deshmukh’s ‘Grandmaster’ achievement is totally different
Normally, chess gamers earn the ‘Grandmaster’ title by reaching three GM norms and a FIDE ranking of 2500 or extra.
There’s, nonetheless, one other method of securing the title—successful top-level competitions, together with the FIDE Ladies’s World Cup — which Divya Deshmukh did on Monday.
Divya Deshmukh’s profession
Divya Deshmukh was born on December 9, 2005, in Nagpur.
As per Chess.com, Divya’s world rating stands at 905.
Beforehand, she bagged the 2022 ladies’s chess champion, 2023 Asian ladies’s champion, and 2024 Beneath‑20 World Champion titles, talked about the Chess web site.
The FIDE Ladies’s World Cup 2025 closing match between Divya and Humpy was nothing wanting a conflict of generations—19-year-old Divya dealing with off towards veteran Humpy, who’s India’s first girl Grandmaster and twice her age.
Extra considerably, it was an all-Indian closing, whereas China’s Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie competed for third place.
Divya’s newest feat makes her the 88th Grandmaster in India.
Koneru Humpy vs Divya Deshmukh
The victory for the Nagpur participant got here after the 2 classical video games performed on Saturday and Sunday led to attracts.
Having drawn the 2 classical video games, it was the primary set of tiebreakers that proved decisive as Humpy misplaced her nerves. Besides the World Cup and the Ladies’s World Championship, Humpy has received every little thing below the solar however, as destiny or nerves would have it, the World Cup title eluded her.
Divya confirmed steely resolve on Monday, and the bonus for the willpower was the Grandmaster title, reserved for the champion of this occasion, reported ANI.
