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3 days ago
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Divya Deshmukh before the start of her tiebreaks against Koneru Humpy in the FIDE Women's World Cup at Batumi. (PHOTO: FIDE/Andrei Anosov)
After 24 days of fighting chess, Divya Deshmukh became the FIDE Women’s World Cup champion at Georgia’s Batumi after defeating the veteran Koneru Humpy in the final via the tiebreaks. Divya’s win also makes her eligible to be India’s fourth woman to become a grandmaster.
This was a battle of generations, with the 19-year-old Divya being half the age of the veteran Humpy, who is India’s first woman to become a grandmaster. Since Humpy became a GM, just two women have followed suit and become grandmasters. Thanks to the win today, Divya joins that elusive list.
On Monday, after the first game ended in a draw, Divya won the second tiebreak game thanks to a blunder from Humpy.
INTERACTIVE: How Divya Deshmukh beat Koneru Humpy
The first two classical games between Humpy and Divya had ended in draws. The first game, which was played on Saturday, was where Divya had the best chances to win, while playing with white pieces. She came with a plan and got a sizeable advantage on the board. But then at the end, she scuffed her lines and allowed Humpy to equalise.
Divya had said that that draw had “felt like a loss” to her. “I had seen everything (beforehand). So I was disappointed by that,” she said.
Humpy too had agreed that Divya was “clearly better” after 12 moves. “After that move, I’m not sure what was going on, but it was very complicated,” Humpy admitted.
In the second game, the game was ambling along to a draw from the start itself. But Divya said that she had wandered “into trouble for no apparent reason.”
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Divya, who is an International Master, was the underdog coming into the tiebreaks, because the games were played in the rapid format and Humpy became the World Rapid Champion for the second time in her career in December last year. Humpy is also currently ranked no 5 in the world in the FIDE ratings list for women while Divya is world no 18 (which makes her the fourth ranked Indian on the list). In other formats too, Humpy is ranked much higher than the teenager from Nagpur: In rapid, Humpy is no 10 in the world while Divya is no 22. In blitz, while the veteran is no 10 in the world among women, Divya is no 18.
Just like Divya, Humpy was also a prodigy back in the day. In fact, Humpy was once the youngest woman to achieve the grandmaster title, when she beat Judit Polgar’s record by three months to reach there at the age of 15 years, one month and 27 days.
Reaching the FIDE Women’s World Cup final is a significant achievement for Divya. It was just last year that she was crowned the world junior champion in the girls section. In the 13 months since, she is already fighting for the second-most prestigious title in women’s chess. Divya was also the inspiration behind the Indian women’s team winning a gold medal at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest last year where she claimed an individual gold as well for her board.
English (US) ·