'Like MS Dhoni in pressure moments': Coach praises 19-year-old Divya Deshmukh after FIDE World Cup win

Time of India

5 days ago

Divya Deshmukh
India's 19-year-old chess prodigy Divya Deshmukh has won the FIDE Women's World Cup in Batumi, Georgia, defeating veteran player Koneru Humpy in an all-Indian final that went to tie-breakers.
Her former coach Srinath Narayanan praised her exceptional talent and composure under pressure, comparing her ability to handle crucial moments to cricket legend
M S Dhoni
.
Divya
became India's 88th Grandmaster and the fourth woman from the country to achieve this prestigious title. The tournament victory came against 38-year-old Humpy, who has been leading Indian women's chess for over two decades with multiple titles including World Rapid Championships and Asian Games gold medals.
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"She's quite an aggressive player. But with time, Divya has become more all-round, more versatile. I think she's equally good across all the different formats... Classical, Rapid and Blitz," Srinath told PTI over phone from Chennai.
"And her strength is, I think, turning up in those big moments, crunch situations. Like how
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
used to win the matches in the last over. I saw something similar in Divya in those last-round situations or situations where everything was hanging in the high-pressure moments.
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She used to perform incredibly well under pressure in important matches."
Srinath, who coached Divya until 2020, first met her at the airport in 2016 when the team was heading to Turkey for the World U-16 Olympiad.
"So, it (association) started around 2018. We met at the World Under-16 Olympiad. The team was going to Turkey. I was the coach of the team and I met her for the first time at the airport. She was incredibly talented.
And she also had a certain kind of ability to win these big games and tournaments. So, in the very first tournament that I coached her, she won a very important game in the last round against Iran," said Srinath about the Nagpur-based player whose parents are doctors.
Divya's impressive career includes three gold medals at the Olympiad, multiple gold medals at the Asian Championship, World Junior Championship, and World Youth Championship.
"She was, I think, way more talented than most of the girls. She showed that talent during the World U-16 Olympiad in 2018. After that, during the 2020 Online Olympiad, Divya was instrumental in our win over China, which was a very important game. And she was one of the winners. Post that, in the same tournament, she was also winning in the final against Russia. Although the match was stopped halfway due to global internet outage and both the teams shared the gold, Divya was clearly one with the most promising position for us in that match.
"
Between 2020 and 2022, Divya experienced a slowdown in her chess career due to the pandemic.
"She, I think, constantly kept winning big tournaments, big events. If anything, she only slowed down around 2020 to 2022 when the pandemic happened. And she wouldn't play in a lot of tournaments. So she took some time off and focused on her studies and started catching up with all those things."
Having qualified for the Candidates Tournament, Srinath believes Divya has the potential to become a world champion.
The victory in the Women's World Cup against established players demonstrates her exceptional talent and determination in the sport.
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