Divya Deshmukh

2020–2023: Early rise

In 2020, Deshmukh was part of the gold medal-winning Indian team at the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad.^[11] In 2022, she won the National Women's Chess Championship.^[12] She won an individual bronze medal at the 2022 Women's Chess Olympiad.^[11]

In 2023, she won the Asian Continental Women, going undefeated with the score 7½/9 (+6-0=3).^[13]

In September 2023, Deshmukh won the rapid section of Tata Steel Chess India with a score of 7/9, despite being the lowest-rated player in the field. During the tournament, she defeated Harika Dronavalli, Vantika Agrawal, Koneru Humpy, Savitha Shri B, Irina Krush, and Nino Batsiashvili. She also drew against World Champion Ju Wenjun, and suffered her only loss to Polina Shuvalova.^[14][15]

2024: Olympiad double gold

In January, Deshmukh played in the Challengers-section, in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024. In May, Deshmukh was the winner of Sharjah Challengers, a large open tournament win that earned her a spot in the Sharjah Masters the following year.^[16]

In June, she became the 2024 World U20 Chess Champion. She became the fourth Indian to win the title after Humpy Koneru in 2001, Harika Dronavalli in 2008, and Soumya Swaminathan in 2009.^[4] Needing a win in the final round, she was the victor against Bulgaria’s third seed Beloslava Krasteva in a five-hour marathon battle to secure 10 points and won the gold.^[7]

At the 45th Chess Olympiad in September, Deshmukh was part of the Indian team that won gold medal in the Women's section in Budapest. She helped team India win the gold medal, scoring 9.5/11 on Board 3 with a performance rating of 2608. She also earned an individual gold medal for the best performance on her board.^[17]

2025: World Cup and Grandmaster title

In January 2025 Deshmukh played, in the Challengers-section, in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025. In June, she played for the Hexamind Chess Club at the World Rapid and Blitz Team Chess Championships held in London. In the blitz semifinals she defeated women’s world no. 1 Hou Yifan in a 74-move rook-vs-bishop endgame, marking her first-ever victory over the Chinese grandmaster. This was one of her 6 wins across 8 blitz games, earning her a performance rating of 2606 and the team's bronze medal finish in the blitz event. The team also won the silver in the rapid section she scored 8 out of 12 points with a performance rating of 2420. Deshmukh also won an individual bronze.^[18]

Deshmukh was seeded 15th in the Women's Chess World Cup 2025. She defeated 2nd seed Zhu Jiner 2.5–1.5 in the fourth round, 10th seed Harika Dronavalli 3–1 in the quarterfinals, and 3rd seed Tan Zhongyi 1.5–0.5 in the semifinals.^[19] In the final, she defeated 4th seed Koneru Humpy 2.5–1.5 to win the tournament.^[20][21] With this win, she earned the grandmaster title, which is directly awarded to the winner of the World Cup without requiring the usual three norms. She became India's 88th grandmaster and the fourth Indian woman to become a grandmaster.^[22][23] Additionally, she qualified for the Women's Candidates Tournament 2026.^[24]

Deshmukh participated in the open section of FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2025 as the 115th seed of 116 players.^[25] She finished 81st with a score of 5/11 (+2-3=6), winning games against Bassem Amin and Velimir Ivić. She drew the reigning World Chess Champion Gukesh Dommaraju in round 8.^[26]

Divya played for Cercle d'échecs de Monte-Carlo team in the European Chess Club Cup, the team won gold medal and she won the gold medal for board 2 with the score 4.5/6.^[27]

Deshmukh was given a presidential nominee for the Chess World Cup 2025, She was elimanated in the first round by GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis.^[28]

2026: Candidates and Invitationals

Deshmukh participated in Challenger section of Prague International Chess Festival. She finished 3rd with two wins and one loss.^[29]

Deshmukh participated in Womens's Candidates Tournament, She was tied for 1st with four other players after 8 rounds, but lost 4 and drew 2 of the remaining 6 games to finish 7th with the score 5.5/14.^[30]

In May-June Deshmukh participated in Norway Chess Women, She defeated Zhu Jiner in round 5 to find herself in sole lead, but lost her 6th round game to World Champion Ju Wenjun, She played leader Bibisara Assaubayeva in round 8 and had a promising position but blundered under time pressure to lose, She consecutively lost the next two rounds to finish on 5th place.^[31] Deshmukh was part of the Hexamind Chess Team that won bronze in the World Rapid Team Chess Championships.^[32]

In August, Deshmukh finished tied 5-7th at Cairns Cup scoring wins against Vaishali R and Alexandra Kosteniuk and losing to tournament leaders Tan Zhongyi and Alice Lee.^[33]