by
John Bain
Divya Deshmukh
India’s chess prodigy 19-year-old Divya Deshmukh won the prestigious FIDE 2025 Women’s World Cup!
Divya is an Indian chess player who besides winning the 2025 World Cup in Batumi, Georgia, also earned the Grandmaster title by doing so.
She became the first Indian woman to win the prestigious tournament. At 19 years old, she is also India’s 88th Grandmaster and the fourth Indian woman to achieve the Grandmaster title.
Early Life and Career
Divya was born December 9, 2005 in Nagpur, India, to medical doctors Jitendra and Namratha Deshmukh.
She started chess young and quickly rose through the ranks. She achieved the International Master (IM) title in 2017 and earned the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) title in 2021.
In 2022, she won the Women’s Indian Chess Championship.
In 2023, she won the Asian Women’s Chess Championship.
She also won the Tata Steel India Rapid Chess division in 2023.
In 2024, she won the FIDE World U20 Girls Championship.
Recent Achievements
In 2025, in the Blitz semifinals at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championship in London, Divya defeated the Women’s World #1 rated chess player Hou Yifan!
The 2025 World Cup Win!
Divya’s 1st Place victory in the 2025 Women’s World Cup 2025 is a historic moment for Indian chess.
She also earned the Grandmaster title, which is awarded to the winner of the World Cup.
2026 Women’s Candidates Tournament
Also by winning the World Cup, Divya secured a spot in the 2026 Women’s Candidates Tournament, where the Top 8 women chess players in the world compete to become the Challenger against the Champion China’s Ju Wenjun in the 2026 World Chess Championship match!
Divya Deshmukh
Addresses
Sexism & Misogyny
Tata Steel Masters
Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands
2024
Divya Sees Bad Moves!
In 2024, the 18-year-old soon-to-be Grandmaster and Winner of the 2025 Women’s World Cup went undefeated in 7 games at the 2024 Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands!
She also demonstrated the same astute discernment, insight, analysis and a growing understanding of life–the same as she has in chess.
Divya recognizes opponents’ motivations, plans and bad moves no matter how subtle or overt–both in chess and in life.
Not Happy!
Divya Deshmukh wrote an Instagram post after the 2024 Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands. Divya’s post addressed the sexism and misogyny that women chess players experienced.
“I played a few games which I felt were quite good and I was proud of them. I got told…the audience was not even bothered [interested] with the games but instead focused on every single possible thing in the world–my clothes, hair, accent and every other irrelevant thing. I was quite upset to hear this.
“I think the sad truth is that …when women play chess people often overlook how good they actually are, the games they play, and their strength.”
She added, “I was quite disappointed to see how everything was discussed…in my interviews…except my games! Very few people paid attention to the games and it is quite a sad thing.”
Divya Deshmukh simply sees and calls out bad moves as she sees them!
Divya Keeps Good Company!
Wise, experienced women chess players like the 8-time USA Women’s Chess Champion, Irina Krush, (seated second from left next to Divya in photo above), are available to mentor Divya in how a woman can navigate the professional chess culture dominated predominately by males.
In the meantime, Divya Deshmukh will continue to simply see and call out bad moves and behaviors as she sees them!
Irina Krush
8-time USA Women’s Chess Champion
Learn To Play Chess
like
Divya Plays Chess!
Divya Deshmukh, 19 years old, wins the 2025 Women’s Chess World Cup!
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