Teen prodigy Divya Deshmukh stunned seasoned grandmaster Koneru Humpy in a tense tiebreak to win the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup in Batumi, Georgia, rewriting Indian chess history at just 19.
The 19-year-old outclassed the 38-year-old Humpy with a final score of 2.5-1.5 in the tiebreaks, becoming the first Indian woman to win the prestigious tournament. With this landmark victory, Deshmukh not only claimed the winner’s purse of $50,000 but also achieved a monumental personal milestone—earning her Grandmaster title and becoming the 88th Indian overall, and only the fourth Indian woman, to do so after Humpy, R. Vaishali, and Harika Dronavalli.
Born into a Marathi family in Nagpur, Maharashtra, Divya is the daughter of doctors Jitendra and Namratha Deshmukh. A student of Bhavans Bhagwandas Purohit Vidya Mandir, she began playing chess at a young age and swiftly rose through the ranks, driven by an insatiable appetite for the game.
Divya already held the titles of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) and International Master (IM), and had racked up an impressive résumé before her World Cup win. She won the 2022 Women’s Indian Chess Championship and was crowned India’s 21st Woman Grandmaster in 2021. She played a key role in India’s gold medal win at the 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad and bagged an individual bronze at the 2022 Chess Olympiad.
In 2023, Divya stunned the chess world by defeating elite Indian players like Harika Dronavalli and Koneru Humpy en route to winning the Asian Women’s Chess Championship and the Tata Steel India rapid division. Her winning streak continued in 2024, claiming the Sharjah Challengers in May and the FIDE World U20 Girls Championship in June—where she scored an incredible 10/11 to seal the title.
At the 2025 World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships in London, she added another feather to her cap by defeating world No. 1 Hou Yifan in a thrilling 74-move game.
Fighting back tears after her World Cup triumph, Divya celebrated the moment with her mother by her side.
"She is the biggest support here. I don't think I would have come this far without her," Deshmukh said. "It's really nice to see somebody who's always cheering for you—through good times and bad."
Reflecting on the magnitude of her achievement, the visibly emotional champion added, "I need time to process it. I think it was fate that I get the GM title this way. Before this tournament, I didn't even have one norm. It definitely means a lot. There's a lot more to achieve. I'm hoping this is just the start."
Her victory isn’t just a personal breakthrough—it’s a defining moment for Indian chess and a beacon for the next generation of young prodigies.
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