Chennai, July 28 (UNI) In the game of 64 squares and 32 pieces, Indian women GMs created history by winning the gold and silver, with Divya DeshMukh annexing the World Cup title defeating her compatriot Koneru Humpy in a tense tie-breaker today at Batumi, Georgia.
At the age of 19, Divya is the youngest and the firat Indian to win this title and was not content with this and expressed her more hunger for success in future.
With the 1-2 finish the two Indian stars–Divya and Humpy–qualified for the 2026 Candidates Tournament, alongside the second and third-place finishers — GM Humpy Koneru and former Women’s World Champion Tan Zhongyi.
With this title triumph, Divya, who turned emotional after edging out Humpy in the third tie-break contest, became third Women’s World Cup Winner and in the process became the women Grand Master.
President Droupady Murmu, Chess icon Vishy Anand congratuled her title triumph and said it augurs well for more emergence of kroe Women GMs in the future.
Her resilience paid off, Anand, five time world title winner, said.
Divya Deshmukh, the 19-year-old International Master from Nagpur, Maharashtra, etched her name into chess history by defeating Grandmaster Humpy Koneru 1.5–0.5 in the tiebreaks to annexe the Women’s World Cup crown in a tense finish.
She now follows in the footsteps of GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (2021) and GM Aleksandra Goryachkina (2023) as the third-ever winner of this prestigious title.
In the two 15+10 rapid tiebreak games, Divya showed both resilience and composure.
After missing a golden opportunity in the first game, which ended in a draw, she brought elite-level precision to the second. There, she equalised comfortably as Black, then seized control as Humpy slipped under time pressure—clinching the crown in emphatic fashion.
With this remarkable win, Divya Deshmukh is now not only the 2025 Women’s World Cup Winner, but also one of the most exciting young stars in the world of chess.
After the final game, an emotional Divya embraced her mother before giving a short interview:
“It’s hard for me to speak now. Of course, this definitely means a lot, but there is a lot more to achieve, so I am hoping that this is just the start,” she said.
With this triumph, Divya not only secured the USD 50,000 first prize, but also automatically earns the Grandmaster (GM) title—the highest title in chess.
In doing so, she becomes one of the very few players in history to achieve it by winning a major FIDE event rather than collecting the usual three GM norms and 2500 rating.
Reflecting on this, Divya shared: “I still need time to process it. I think it was fate, me getting the Grandmaster title this way, because before this I didn’t even have one norm, and now I’m a Grandmaster.”
