Divya Deshmukh flips the script and rewrites history at Chess World Cup, signalling brighter future for Indian women's chess

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29-07-2025

Divya Deshmukh's victory at the 2025 Women's Chess World Cup was historic, but more importantly, it highlighted her flourishing game and signalled the possibility of Indian women dominating the sport. read more
In an unprecedentedly successful campaign for India, Divya Deshmukh emerged as its biggest star. Image: PTI
Divya Deshmukh credited fate in disbelief as she became the first Indian to win a Women's Chess World Cup and stormed to the Grandmaster title without fulfilling the required norms. 'I think it was fate, me getting the grandmaster title this way. Before the tournament, I didn't even have one norm. I was thinking that I could maybe earn a grandmaster norm here," an emotional Divya said as FIDE's interviewer tried to capture some candid moments immediately after the teenager's historic victory.
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A few seconds later, something changed, not the tone, but the self-belief and resolve that pushed the former International Master from a relatively smaller city, Nagpur, to the topmost of the podium in Batumi, Georgia, came to the fore. 'This means a lot, but there's a lot more to achieve. I'm hoping this is just the start,' the 19-year-old declared.
Divya's ascent to the top in the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025, which included 107 players, some of the best chess minds, except world champion Ju Wenjun and a tough knock-out format battle, was based on the same self-belief and resolve.
Divya flips the script and rewrites history
We already know she entered the tournament without a single GM norm, but also had a low seeding of 15th in the tournament that included multiple former world champions. The one , another Indian and the torchbearer of women's chess in the country, Koneru Humpy, is the reigning Women's World Rapid Chess Champion. Then there was former 2008 Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012 Women's World Champion Anna Ushenina and 2017 Women's World Champion Tan Zhongyi.
The grinding field also included the 2018 World Championship runner-up Kateryna Lagno and the 2023 Women's World Championship runner-up Lei Tingjie, who was also the top seed.
It didn't end there. The seven-round knockout format, where each player contested two Classical games followed by tiebreaks if needed, exerted colossal mental pressure on the competitors. There were no freebies and every loss could mean elimination.
If the idiom 'trial by fire' could take the shape of a playing field, it would be the line-up that stood in front of Divya.
But what did she do?
Divya scripted an incredible streak of four consecutive wins from the fourth round against higher-ranked players, beating second seed Zhu Jiner of China in Round 4, stunning 10th seed and compatriot D Harika in the quarter-finals, outwitting former world champion Tan Zhongyi of China in the semi-finals, before the big scalp in the final.
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Divya Deshmukh's historic win at the 2025 Women's Chess World Cup will inspire a new generation of women chess players in India. Image: PTI
To pull off such a feat once could be luck, but to do it four times on a trot within a span of a few days only highlights how special the 2024 Women's Under-20 World Champion is as a player.
Zhu Jiner's defeat: The crown jewel of Divya's historic campaign
That speciality of her chess was on full display when Divya outsmarted 22-year-old Jiner in the fourth round, who enjoyed a 5-0 record over the Indian till then. Divya won the first Classical game, but Jiner came back in the second, forcing tiebreaks.
The story for the Indian prodigy could have been over in the first tiebreak when she committed a 34th-move knight blunder and a 61st-move Rook blunder with the Black pieces, but somehow managed to take the game to 99 moves and forced the Chinese chess star to resign. The second tiebreak ended in a draw and Divya made the impossible possible.
Her stunning victory was only made sweeter by the fact that three other players from the same country — Humpy, Harika and R Vaishali also qualified for the final eight stage, a first in the world of chess and new history for India.
In the quarter-finals, Divya got the better of Harika and quickly reminded us how much the victory over Jiner had positively impacted her game. 'Zhu Jiner was definitely my toughest opponent up to now and winning the tiebreak against her gave me confidence for this one," she said after reaching the semi-finals.
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Soon, only two Indians were left in the tournament — Divya and Humpy — at the semi-final stage, where both scripted exceptional wins. Humpy outclassed top seed Tingjie 5-3 despite trailing 0-1 at one point, while Divya stunned former champion Zhongyi.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Also Read | How Divya outfoxed Humpy, scripted history by winning FIDE Women's Chess World Cup
But besides Divya's individual glory, the tournament also underlined the rapid strides Indian women's chess is making. Last year, they captured the Olympiad gold for the first time.
This year, Divya, 19 years younger than 38-year-old Humpy, won India's first Women's World Cup title, signalling that the future would be even brighter than the glittering present.