World Cup: Nothing to lose, experience to gain for Divya

A lot has changed for Divya Deshmukh in a little over three months. The teen wore the FIDE Women’s World Cup crown as the first Indian and the youngest ever in late July, carried the promoted title of Grandmaster (GM) from International Master (IM), and earned the 2026 Women's Candidates spot.

- Rutvick Mehta

She returned to her hometown Nagpur to the sight and sound of fast-clicking shutterbugs, garland-showering officials and a flowing flock of well-wishers. Such unprecedented spotlight is set to remain on the 19-year-old by the bustling beaches of Goa.

Amid a stacked 206-player field at the FIDE World Cup starting Saturday, Divya will be the only female in the mix as a FIDE wildcard after China's women’s world No.1 Hou Yifan and world champion Ju Wenjun declined an invitation.

How about that for some more limelight - in a World Cup in India, no less?

“She is someone who is a natural at dealing with the spotlight. She enjoys the visibility, which a lot of other chess players tend to shy away from,” GM Srinath Narayanan, who briefly trained Divya, said. “I feel the added spotlight is unlikely to add a lot of pressure, because the expectations are not that high.”

The Women's World Cup winner is competing in an open World Cup where there are 149 men with a higher rating than Divya’s 2498 in classical. Her first-round opponent, Greek Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis, has a higher rating (2583) than the finalist she beat in the Women’s World Cup, Koneru Humpy.