It must be a giddy feeling to be associated with Indian chess right now. India are gold medallists in both the Open and women’s Olympiad, the women’s world rapid champion is Indian, the world champion is Indian, and now, the women’s World Cup winner is Indian – Divya Deshmukh is her name.
It was a rise that even she didn’t see forthcoming. The last time this writer spoke to Divya was when covering the World Championship match in Singapore between Gukesh Dommaraju and Ding Liren. At the time, she was rising through the ranks but her own answer to what she expected out of 2025 put in perspective where she stood in the Indian chess pecking order. “I want to play in a lot of tournaments and improve my rating,” she had said back then.
Not that Divya was an unknown commodity heading into 2025: she was perhaps the brightest young prospect in women’s chess and had already been an integral part of two Olympiad teams already. In the 2024 Olympiad, with Harika Dronavalli and Vaishali Rameshbabu not quite firing on all cylinders, India needed Divya to be at her best to have a chance of the team gold. She won gold on her board, scoring 9.5 points out of a possible 11. “It was the best time of my life,” Divya told ESPN of her experience at that Olympiad in Budapest. That followed her bronze on the reserve board at the 2022 Olympiad in Chennai.
She had started 2025 well — beating Hou Yifan (widely regarded as the greatest player of this generation) at the FIDE World Teams Blitz Championships, for instance. But she was nowhere near favourite for this World Cup She wasn’t even featured on the official website pre-tournament, and she hadn’t even achieved a Grandmaster norm yet.
Before the tournament, it was also clear that out of the top four Indians -Humpy, Harika, Vaishali, and Divya – the youngster from Nagpur had the toughest draw to navigate. Second seed Zhu Jiner in the fourth round, Harika in the quarterfinals, World Championship runner-up Tan Zhongyi in the semifinals and then Humpy in the final. Simply put, it was a nightmare draw. But for the 15th seed, any draw from the fourth round onwards (with 16 players left) was going to be a challenge to navigate.
Jiner has been the form player in the FIDE Circuit in 2025, so when Divya beat her in tie-breaks in the fourth round, that must have boosted her confidence. She was never in any real danger at any point during her quarterfinal against Harika, even though she couldn’t really take her chances before eventually winning it in tie-breaks. And then against Zhongyi, she didn’t even need tie-breaks, winning a roller-coaster second classical game.
That win against Zhongyi was massive, both from a confidence perspective, and for statistical reasons as well. Alexandra Kosteniuk and Aleksandra Goryachkina had both beaten Zhongyi in the semifinals of the two previous World Cups on their way to winning the title.
In the final, she had an opening or two in both the classical games and didn’t take them. Then she had a couple of look-ins in the second rapid game of the tie-breaks and didn’t take them. Eventually, though, Humpy had one last inaccuracy left in her, which Divya took to win the title. Of course, this doesn’t make her the world champion — despite the slew of congratulatory messages calling her that — Ju Wenjun is the world champion, but winning the World Cup is still a remarkable achievement.
And with this title, comes another: Divya is now a GM.
“I didn’t even have one norm (coming into the event) and all I was thinking of was ‘Oh, when can I get my norm’, and now I’m a Grandmaster…,” she said after her win.
Instead of having to earn it via winning three norms, Divya had bypassed all that hassle – by simply winning the World Cup. She is India’s 88th Grandmaster, and only the fourth woman out of those 88. On her way to achieving that GM status, she beat two of those three other Indian women who are GMs (Koneru Humpy and Harika).
Now, there’s still more to come.
Divya’s nowhere near her best yet — she must be sharper in endgames and close out advantageous positions far more often — but she knows that. However, she’s got age on her side and will likely be the youngest in the field at next year’s Candidates tournament.
“It’s hard for me to speak right now. It definitely means a lot, but of course there’s a lot more to achieve,” said Divya after the win. “I’m hoping this is just the start.” Well, there are worse ways for sportspeople to get started than by just being crowned World Cup champion.
