Divya Deshmukh

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Divya Deshmukh
Divya Deshmukh in 2025.jpg
Deshmukh in 2025
CountryFlag of India.svg  India
Born (2005-12-09) 9 December 2005 (age 19) [1]
Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
Title Grandmaster (2025)
FIDE   rating 2478 (September 2025)
Peak rating 2501 (October 2024)

Divya Deshmukh (born 9 December 2005) is an Indian chess grandmaster. [2] She has won two gold medals and one bronze medal at the Women's Chess Olympiad. Deshmukh won the Women's Chess World Cup 2025 and qualified for the Women's Candidates Tournament 2026. She has also won golds at the Asian Championship, the World Junior Championship and the World Youth Championship. [3]

Contents

Early life

Deshmukh was born in Nagpur to a Marathi family. [4] Her parents Namrata and Jitendra Deshmukh are both doctors. [5] She has an older sister. [6] She studied at Bhavan's Bhagwandas Purohit Vidya Mandir during her schooling days. [7]

Career

2020–2023: Early rise

In 2020, Deshmukh was part of the gold medal-winning Indian team at the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad. [8] In 2022, she won the National Women's Chess Championship. [9] She won an individual bronze medal at the 2022 Women's Chess Olympiad. [8]

In 2023, Deshmukh won the Asian Continental Women. [10] She came first in the Tata Steel Chess India Women's Rapid, despite being the lowest-rated player in the field. During the tournament, she defeated Harika Dronavalli, Vantika Agrawal, Koneru Humpy, Savitha Shri B, Irina Krush, and Nino Batsiashvili. She also drew against World Champion Ju Wenjun and Anna Ushenina, and suffered her only loss to Polina Shuvalova. [11] [12]

2024: Olympiad double gold

In January 2024 Deshmukh played, in the Challengers-section, in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024. In May, Deshmukh was the winner of Sharjah Challengers, a large open tournament win that earned her a spot in the Sharjah Masters the following year. [13] In June, she became the 2024 World U20 Chess Champion. She became the fourth Indian to win the title after Humpy Koneru in 2001, Harika Dronavalli in 2008, and Soumya Swaminathan in 2009. [3] Needing a win in the final round, she was the victor against Bulgaria’s third seed Beloslava Krasteva in a five-hour marathon battle to secure 10 points and won the gold. [5]

She helped team India win the gold medal at the 45th Chess Olympiad, scoring 9.5/11 on Board 3 with a performance rating of 2608. She also earned an individual gold medal for the best performance on her board. [14]

2025: World Cup and Grandmaster title

In January 2025 Deshmukh played, in the Challengers-section, in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025. In June, she played for the Hexamind Chess Club at the World Rapid and Blitz Team Chess Championships held in London. In the blitz semifinals she defeated women’s world no. 1 Hou Yifan in a 74-move rook-vs-bishop endgame, marking her first-ever victory over the Chinese grandmaster. This was one of her 6 wins across 8 blitz games, earning her a performance rating of 2606 and the team's bronze medal finish in the blitz event. The team also won the silver in the rapid section due to her performance scoring 8 out of 12 points with a performance rating of 2420. Deshmukh also won an individual bronze. [15]

Deshmukh was seeded 15th in the Women's Chess World Cup 2025. She defeated 2nd seed Zhu Jiner in the fourth round, 10th seed Harika Dronavalli in the quarterfinals, and 3rd seed Tan Zhongyi in the semifinals. [16] In the final, she defeated 4th seed Koneru Humpy in tiebreaks to win the tournament. [17] With this win, she earned the grandmaster title, which is directly awarded to the winner of the World Cup without requiring the usual three norms. She became India's 88th grandmaster and the fourth Indian woman to become a grandmaster. [18] [19] Additionally, she qualified for the Women's Candidates Tournament 2026. [20]

Performance record

Women's Chess World Cup 2025 [21]
SeedNameGame 1Game 2Tiebreaker 1Tiebreaker 2Total
15 Flag of India.svg Divya Deshmukh½½½12½
4 Flag of India.svg Humpy Koneru ½½½01½

References

  1. ↑ "Divya Deshmukh FIDE profile" . Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  2. ↑ "Koneru Humpy vs Divya Deshmukh, Women's Chess World Cup Final Highlights: Divya Deshmukh crowned champion, becomes India's 88th GM". timesofindia. 28 July 2025.
  3. 1 2 Raghavan, R. Srinivasa (20 June 2024). "Divya Deshmukh, India's new chess star, looks set to checkmate the world". thefederal.com. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  4. ↑ "Meet Divya Deshmukh: All You Need To Know About Indian Chess Player Who Faced Sexism From Fans – In Pics". Zee News. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  5. 1 2 "Nagpur's queen India's pride: Divya Deshmukh is world junior chess champion". The Times of India. 14 June 2024. ISSN   0971-8257 . Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  6. ↑ https://www.thehitavada.com/Encyc/2020/4/18/How-Dad-s-hobby-made-Divya.html
  7. ↑ Shekhawat, Meemansa. "Meet Divya Deshmukh, grandmaster who helped India clinch gold medal at Budapest Chess Olympiad at age of..." DNA India. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
  8. 1 2 "Who is Divya Deshmukh? Nagpur chess prodigy bags World U-20 Chess Championship title – CNBC TV18". CNBCTV18. 14 June 2024. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  9. ↑ Navalgund, Niranjan (5 March 2022). "Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh Clinch Indian National Championships". chess.com. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  10. ↑ Ahmed, Shahid (12 June 2023). "Divya Deshmukh Golden, Silver for Mary Ann Gomes at Asian Continental Women 2023 - ChessBase India". Chessbase India. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  11. ↑ Colodro, Carlos Alberto (3 September 2023). "Divya wins Tata Steel Rapid with splendid performance". ChessBase. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  12. ↑ Saravanan, Venkatachalam (2 September 2023). "Tata Steel Chess India Women's Rapid: Divya Deshmukh Triumphs". Chess.com. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  13. ↑ Ahmed, Shahid (23 May 2024). "Divya Deshmukh wins Sharjah Challengers 2024". ChessBase India. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  14. ↑ Burtasova, Anna (22 September 2024). "India triumphs at 45th Chess Olympiad, winning both Open and Women's competitions". fide.com. Archived from the original on 22 September 2024. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  15. ↑ "Nagpur's Divya Stuns China's World Women No.1 Hou Yifan". The Times of India. 17 June 2025. ISSN   0971-8257 . Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  16. ↑ Aaditya Narayan (24 July 2025). "Teenager Divya Deshmukh slays nerves and seeded players to reach first Chess World Cup final". ESPN .
  17. ↑ "Chess | Historic! 19-year-old Divya Deshmukh crowned FIDE Women's World Cup champion, becomes India's 88th GM". The Times of India. 28 July 2025. ISSN   0971-8257 . Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  18. ↑ "At 19, Divya Deshmukh becomes Women's World Cup champion and India's 4th woman to be GM by defeating Koneru Humpy". The Indian Express. 28 July 2025. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  19. ↑ Kumar, P. K. Ajith (28 July 2025). "FIDE Women's World Cup: Divya Deshmukh is the first Indian woman champion, becomes Grandmaster". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  20. ↑ Levin, Anthony (28 July 2025). "2025 Women's World Cup Final Tiebreaks: Divya Wins Women's World Cup, Earns Grandmaster Title". Chess.com. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  21. ↑ "FIDE Women's World Cup: Divya Deshmukh is the first Indian woman champion, becomes Grandmaster". The Hindu. 28 July 2025. Archived from the original on 29 July 2025. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Women's Asian Chess Champion
2023–2025		Succeeded by
Preceded by Indian Women's Chess Champion
2022		Succeeded by
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