Divya Deshmukh

Some Lesser Known Facts About Divya Deshmukh

• Divya Deshmukh is an Indian chess player from Maharashtra who became the senior national women’s chess champion in March 2022.

• Divya started taking coaching from Rahul Joshi when she was six years old. She switched from badminton to chess when she was four years old because of her short height.

  

• Divya gained an interest in Chess because of her father who used to play chess as a hobby. She won her first prize at the age of five.

  

• In 2021, she became India’s 21st Woman Grand Master (WGM) after achieving her 2nd International Master (IM) at Grand Master held in Budapest, Hungary.

  

• In March 2022, she became Nagpur’s first senior national women’s chess champion. She also became the first teenager to win the title after Koneru Humpy, who won it in 2003. After winning the national tournament, she shared her feelings and said,
  

  It’s hard to believe but I have to believe it. I had zero expectations while heading to this tournament as I just wanted to play my best.”

  

• In March 2022, she received a cash prize of Rs. 50, 000 from Maharashtra Chess Association for winning the MPL 47th National women’s Championship held at Bhubaneshwar.

  

• In an interview, her coach RB Ramesh talked about her game and hard work and said,
  

  Divya is a very talented and hard working girl. She has been making steady progress in her playing strength and her rating has also been increasing steadily as a result. She is very sure of herself and does not doubt her abilities at the same time very down to earth. I am very happy that she very deservingly won the world title.”

• Her idol is chess player Viswanathan Anand.

  

• She is an avid dog lover and often posts pictures of them on social media.

  

• Divya faced sexist behaviour from the audience at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, held in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, in 2024. In an Instagram post, she revealed how everything including her appearance was discussed in the tournament, but very few were focused on her performance in the game. ^[1]India Today