At 13, chess queen Divya is World no. 1 in U-14 girls & India no. 3 among women

Nagpur: Orange City’s little chess queen Divya Deshmukh touched a new high on Tuesday. The 13-year-old is now world no. 1 in the under-14 girls’ section. She becomes the second Indian after Koneru Humpy to hold the rank.
Divya’s 2432 Elo rating also makes her No. 5 in the junior (U-20) category. She is the only Indian in the top 10 of this list. The achievement places her at No. 3 among Indian women. Ahead of her are the more experienced 31-year-old Humpy (2549 Elo) and 28-year-old Harika Dronavalli (2492 Elo).

“I had not expected both to happen so fast. I just hope I can maintain the rating and also go on to become No.1 as soon as possible. This isn’t the limit for me,” Divya told TOI.

Divya’s rise in the rating is very fast and she has done “pretty well in the last three months”, according to Humpy. “This is a very good sign for the country. After me, I think Divya is the only women player to have achieved this feat,” she told TOI.

A two-time world cadet chess champion, Divya became city’s first Women International Master (WIM) in 2018 and started the year with an Elo of 2168. In three months, she garnered 264 international rating points.

Following her maiden triumph in the open women category at the AICF International Round Robin tournament, Divya scored her first IM norm too. At the Aeroflot Open 2019, she missed the IM norm but cleared her second WGM norm and also touched a live rating of 2,400.

Divya’s consistent performance recently helped her go past senior Indian players like Soumya Swaminathan (2402), Tania Sachdev (2397), Eesha Karavade (2370), Padmini Rout (2364), R Vaishali (2353), Bhakti Kulkarni (2350) and Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman (2342) among others.

In October 2001, a 14-year-old Humpy had cleared the 2,400 mark to become the youngest Indian player ever to do so. Within a year she also became World’s youngest GM beating Judit Polgar's previous mark by three months. Humpy’s record was broken by Chinese Hou Yifan in 2008.

“It is a sign of fast improvement and her learning is in the right direction,” said Humpy of Divya touching the 2400 Elo mark.

“Crossing 2400 is very good as it also helps in getting the IM title. Otherwise, crossing the rating becomes more difficult than clearing norms,” said Divya.

While Divya broke Humpy’s record of achieving the 2400 Elo mark by some months, the 13-year-old has in her all the ingredients of becoming India’s youngest GM too. Humpy, however, has a word of caution for Divya. “Divya’s tough fight starts from here as her opponents will be more alert. She needs to work a lot to maintain the rating and should only think on how to improve further,” she said.

“I think maintaining the rating can be little tough and increasing it will be really difficult now. My initial aim is to become an IM and then as usual the GM title. But improving my game is my priority,” said Divya.

Divya, who recently became Maharashtra’s youngest Shiv Chhatrapati awardee with city’s Raunak Sadhwani, is currently participating as the 39th seed in the 21st Dubai Open.