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Divya Deshmukh's amazing chess career in pictures

by Rasika Ratnaparkhi - 05/08/2025

Divya Deshmukh winning the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 is a phenomenal moment for Indian chess! She became the fourth Indian woman to achieve the Grandmaster title. What makes her achievement even more extraordinary is that she didn’t have a single GM norm before the event. With this, Divya has entered the top 15 in the women's rating list. The 19-year-old has also qualified for the FIDE Women's Candidates 2026. Recently, Divya reflected on her journey through some of the most memorable pictures of her career. Let's have a look at it in this article. Photo: Andrei Anosov

The crown chose her!

Divya Deshmukh created history by winning the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025, becoming the youngest ever to do so. With this victory, she became the first Indian female player to win the FIDE World Cup and also achieved her GM title! The latter was special because, although Divya had crossed 2500 on the Elo scale, she hadn't scored any GM norms yet! With this win, she has qualified for the Candidates' tournament that will be held next year.

Divya's journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. She started simply as a curious chess player, and now she is among the top 15 women players in the world. In a recent conversation, Divya reflected on some special pictures from her career. Let's take a walk down memory lane and see how she rose from a little champion to enter the top 15!

This was Divya's first-ever chess tournament, the L G Somalwar Memorial Inter-School and Inter-Collegiate Chess Tournament. At the age of 5, chess became Divya's playground. She was unaware of how far this beautiful journey would take her!

This is one of the first pictures we put up on ChessBase India of Divya Deshmukh. She had won the bronze medal at the World Youth Championship in 2015. | Photo: Reint Dykema

In 2012, Divya and R. Praggnanandhaa stood together on the podium at the National U-7 Championship. Who would've thought these two little kids would grow up to become contenders for the Candidates Tournament!

Divya won the Girls Under-9 category at the 27th National Chess Championship. Nihal Sarin recently posted the same picture on Instagram, congratulating Divya on her achievement. Today, both have grown into two of India's finest chess talents!

In 2015, Divya won double Gold at the Asian Under-10 Girls Championship (Standard & Rapid)

Divya's first World Championship in 2016, where she won the Bronze medal by scoring 8.5/11. We also see Praggnanandhaa and Mrudul Dehankar, another talented player from Nagpur, who has also made her mark in Indian chess. | Photo: Mrunalini Kunte

Divya has consistently won Gold medals in the Commonwealth Championships in the U-10 (2015), U-12 (2017), U-16 (2018), and U-14 (2019) categories!

For a young chess player, a few moments are very special, like this one! Young Divya receiving a prize from Viswanathan Anand!

Every player remembers their first win against a Grandmaster. For Divya, that milestone came against GM Hua Nguyen.

This photo was taken after Divya earned her first WIM norm. After the game, Divya sat with Sagar Shah and asked him to show her the features of some chess software. You can see how curious she was to learn!

The clash of Deshmukhs! Anup Deshmukh is a respected IM from Nagpur. He was one of Divya's early mentors. “He has always been a guiding support in my career,” she says. This picture of them facing off across the board is a beautiful mentor-student moment!

Divya won the Tata Steel Chess India 2023 Women's Rapid Title. It was one of the biggest victories of her career. | IA Vivek Sohani/Tata Steel Chess India

Divya won the FIDE World Juniors 2024! She totally dominated the tournament with an extraordinary 10/11 score. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Divya won the Individual Gold medal on board 3 at the 45th Chess Olympiad Women 2024. Her solid performance played a significant role in the Indian Women's team's gold victory as well. | Photo: FIDE/Michal Walusza and Maria Emelianova/chess.com

And most recently (with many more to come), Divya became the fourth Indian woman to become a Grandmaster and the youngest woman to win the World Cup! | Photo: Anna Shtourman

A photo inspired by Lionel Messi. After winning the World Cup, he posted a picture lying next to his trophy. This was Divya's version of that photo! | Photo: Divya's Instagram

Divya’s chess journey has always been a team effort. Her mom made sure she was physically and emotionally cared for, her dad handled all the technicalities of travel and tournaments, and her sister made sacrifices to support Divya's dreams. This photo is from the Commonwealth Championship 2018 when Divya's entire family was present at the tournament.

Moments after winning the World Cup, Divya didn’t head straight to the cameras. She went straight to her mom. “It was the first time I ever cried in front of people. I didn’t want the world to see me cry, so I buried my face into my mom's shoulder.” | Photo: Anna Shtourman

Divya received a grand reception in Nagpur. Despite the huge crowd, she remained calm and composed with a huge smile on her face. | Photo: tv1indialive's Instagram

Rahul Joshi, Divya’s first coach, introduced her and her family to the world of competitive chess. "When I was around 7 or 8, he made me sign a paper that said I would become a Grandmaster by the time I was 14 or 15," Divya recalls. She carried a photo frame of Rahul Joshi in the rally, dedicating her title to him. Such a sweet and heartfelt gesture by Divya!

The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadanvis, felicitated Divya and presented her with a cash award of Rs. 3 crore. | Photo: CMO Maharashtra/X

Is this her peak or the start of a much higher climb? | Photo: Andrei Anosov

Check out Divya's full interview with Sagar Shah as she talks about her journey, games and also answers some fun questions:

The Ultimate Divya Deshmukh interview. | Video: ChessBase India

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