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19-year-old Divya Deshmukh defeated fellow Indian Koneru Humpy in the final of the FIDE Women's Chess World Cup final. This was the second 15-minute rapid tie-breaker of the final which began on Saturday. However, both the final and first tie-breaker ended up as draws which took the game into the third and decisive day.
This victory saw Deshmukh earn the title of 'Grandmaster' which is nothing short of a massive achievement. She burst into tears as soon as Humpy decided to resign from the game and was later surrounded by her family, who were present to witness her become the new world champion. She was also seen hugging her mom in what was quite an emotional moment.
Notably, Deshmukh has become just the fourth Indian to earn the prestigious and coveted title of 'Grandmaster' after the likes of Humpy, R. Vaishali and Harika Dronavalli. The newly-crowned world champion will also be receiving $50,000 as part of the prize money.
Divya has booked her place in the Candidates tournament next year
The victory also saw the Nagpur based player secure a spot in next year's Candidates tournament which will go on to decide the player who will take on China's Ju Wenjun in the Women's World Championship.
"I need time to process it (win). I think it was fate, me getting the Grandmaster title this way because before this (tournament) I didn't even have one (GM) norm, and now I am the Grandmaster," Deshmukh said after winning the final as quoted by PTI.
“I think it was fate, me getting the grandmaster title this way.. Before the tournament, I didn’t even have one norm. I was thinking that I could maybe earn a grandmaster norm here. And at the end, I became a grandmaster," she added.
Meanwhile, despite being just 19 years old, Deshmukh has already achieved quite a lot in her career as she also won multiple golds at the World Junior Championships, Asian Championship and World Youth Championship. She also played a major role in the women's team winning at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest last year.
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